


After All These Years

by colferdreaam



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-15 00:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1284553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colferdreaam/pseuds/colferdreaam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt (3) and Blaine (13) are in a care home. Kurt is like a baby brother to Blaine and Blaine is Kurt's best friend. When the home catches fire during the night and Kurt is missing from the group of children, Blaine runs inside to save him without thinking. That night, however, is the last time that Blaine will see Kurt. What will happen when they find each other years down the line?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

After the unfortunate death of his parents when Kurt was two, he was placed in an orphanage. He had no friends, no family, nothing but a stuffed sheep that he never let go of. Now at the age of three, Kurt was a shy child who would often sit by himself instead of trying to make friends. The social workers at the orphanage would often attempt to get Kurt to talk to the other children but he would just look up at them with sad blue eyes, clutch his sheep to his chest and shake his head. During meal times Kurt would sit at the end of the table with his sheep on his lap instead of sitting amongst the other children.

Being the youngest child at the orphanage, it probably wouldn’t have been easy for Kurt to make friends even if he was willing to. Most of the children were at least six or seven and there were a few children between the ages of eleven and fifteen, but not many. It wasn’t the biggest or bestest orphanage but it was Kurt’s home; the only home he had.

Kurt was drawing one day – he was standing instead of sitting at the coffee table in the living room as he was too small to reach if he sat down – when one of the ‘older kids’ came over and knelt in front of him. Kurt looked up at the boy that was kneeling in front of him with curious big blue eyes, a crayon in one hand, his sheep in the other and the dummy that the social workers couldn’t wean him off of in his mouth.

“Hey there,” The boy with curly black hair said to him. “What’re you drawing?” He asked.

Kurt looked at him for a few seconds before picking his paper up and showing it to the boy.

“Is it… a duck?” The boy guessed.

Kurt shook his head from side to side, a small smile appearing on his face.

The boy took another look at the squiggles on the paper before guessing again. “Hm…is it… a house?”

Kurt shook his head again, giggling a little.

“No!?” The boy exclaimed in a high pitched voice, sighing dramatically. “I give up. What is it?”

“A seep.” Kurt giggled, his voice muffled by the dummy in his mouth.

“Ohh,” The boy said, realisation in his voice. “Well it’s a beautiful sheep.”

Kurt giggled again, putting the paper down on the table and looking back up at the boy.

“Why aren’t you playing with the other kids?” The boy asked softly.

Kurt looked over at the group of children playing on the other side of the room before looking back at the boy and shaking his head from side to side, his soft brown hair sweeping across his face.

“No? You don’t want to play?” The boy asked, Kurt shaking his head again. “Do you want to come and sit with me and my friends then?” He asked, nodding towards two other boys who were sitting on the sofa.

Kurt looked at the boys before looking at his sheep then back up at the boy before nodding shyly.

“Come on,” The boy smiled, standing up and holding his hand out for Kurt. Slowly, Kurt placed his tiny little hand in the boys and allowed himself to be lead over to the sofa. Once they were there the boy knelt back down next to Kurt and pointed to each of his friends, telling the three year old their names. “That’s Wes, Nick and Jeff, and I’m Blaine.”

“Hi there,” One of the boys, Wes Kurt thought, said with a smile. “What’s your name?”

“Kuh,” Kurt replied, his voice muffled by his dummy. Realising this, he pulled his dummy out of his mouth before speaking again. “Kurt.” He said in an adorable little voice.

Allowing himself to be seated on Blaine’s lap, Kurt placed his dummy back in his mouth and clutched his sheep to his chest, leaning his head against Blaine’s stomach.

“And how old are you, little one?” Nick asked.

Kurt looked down at his fingers, tapping each one with the fingers on his other hand before holding up three fingers.

“Three?”

Kurt nodded in acknowledgement, lowering his hand and snuggling back up to Blaine.

Kurt spent the rest of the day with Blaine, and with Blaine’s friends whenever they were there. He even sat with him at lunch and dinner instead of sitting at the end of the table by himself – he was allowed to sit on Blaine’s lap and eat after much pleading from Kurt and reassurance from Blaine that he was okay with it.

They went back into the living room after dinner and watched TV; Kurt sitting on Blaine’s lap once again. The three year old began to fall asleep snuggled into Blaine’s chest while he hugged his sheep and chewed on his dummy, until one of the social workers came to tell him that it was time for bed.

“Come on,” She smiled. “We’ll go and read one of your story books.”

“Bayn,” Kurt mumbled around his dummy, looking up at Blaine with questioning blue eyes.

“Do you mind?” The social worker asked.

“Nope,” Blaine smiled, standing up and balancing the three year old on his hip as Kurt laid his head on the older boys’ shoulder and closed his eyes.

“I’ll show you to his room,” The social worker smiled. “I think this one’s a little too tired to show you.” She said, smoothing Kurt’s hair out of his face.

Once Kurt was sat on his bed with his cover pulled over him, he was a lot more awake than he had been a few minutes before. Blaine was looking at his book collection – which wasn’t huge, he just had a few fairy tales, but still… – unsure of which one he should read.

“Hm, which book do you want to read?” He asked Kurt.

“Peter Pan!” Kurt exclaimed with a smile.

Blaine found the book before lying down next to the three year old. He was little shocked when Kurt immediately snuggled up to his side but wrapped one of his arms around him nonetheless and allowed the little boy to use him as a pillow.

Soon enough, Kurt was asleep and Blaine was sneaking out of his bedroom and back downstairs to his friends.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?” Blaine asked, noticing the strange looks he was getting from his friends.

“You just became the best friend of a three year old,” Nick replied.

“And…?”

“Nothing, it’s just…thirteen year olds generally hang out with other thirteen year olds, not three year olds.”

“Nick,” Blaine sighed. “He’s sweet. He’s obviously really shy and he has no friends, why is it wrong of me to look after him?”

“It’s not,” Wes assured him.

“It’s just kind of weird,” Nick shrugged.

“No, it’s not,” Wes countered.

“Okay, okay,” Blaine said, trying to stop a fight from happening. “Look, I don’t care what you think. I’m still gonna look after him. I’m still gonna watch TV with him and I’m still gonna let him sit on my lap at dinner so get over it.”

“Blaine –”

“I’m going to bed,” Blaine announced, getting up and making his way back upstairs to his bedroom.

During the night, Blaine felt a small tug on his arm and a little voice saying his name. He blinked his eyes open sleepily to see Kurt standing in front of him, his sheep and dummy still intact, pulling on the sleeve of his top.

“Kurt?” Blaine croaked out, rubbing at his eyes. “What’s up, buddy?”

“I can’t sleep.” Kurt murmured.

“Come here,” Blaine said softly, shifting over in his bed a little and pulling the covers back for Kurt to climb in.

Kurt crawled onto the bed and snuggled into Blaine’s arms, cuddling his sheep close to him. Blaine pressed a kiss into Kurt’s baby soft hair before pulling the covers over them. He had no idea how Kurt had found his room, and he was little shocked that Kurt felt comfortable enough with him that he would go to his room when he couldn’t sleep already but he wasn’t that bothered either. So, he cuddled the three year old close and slowly drifted back to sleep.

The next morning when Blaine awoke, the little boy in his arms was still asleep, his toy sheep squished between his body and the tiny one that he was cuddling to him. Blaine couldn’t help but smile at how adorable the three year old looked; one of his tiny hands fisted in the fur of the sheep and his dummy fully intact in his mouth, as always. His head was pillowed on Blaine’s shoulder while the thirteen year olds arm encircled him, keeping him close, and the blanket on Blaine’s bed was wrapped around him in a way that his head was just peeping over the top.

The small boy began to make little snuffling noises before he opened his eyes and looked up at Blaine with sleepy eyes.

“Morning little one,” Blaine smiled, caressing Kurt’s baby soft cheek gently with his thumb.

Kurt pulled his hand up and rubbed at his eyes tiredly before sitting up and stretching his tiny arms. He pulled himself up onto his knees and crawled back to the top of the bed, picking his sheep up and hugging it.

Suddenly, there was a knock on Blaine’s bedroom door, causing both Kurt and Blaine to look up at it.

“Come in,” Blaine called out, his voice hoarse with sleep.

“Blaine have you seen – oh, you’re in here, thank god,” One of the social workers came into Blaine’s bedroom, obviously thinking Kurt was missing after not seeing him in his own bedroom.

“He could sleep last night so I let him stay with me, I hope that’s okay.” Blaine explained.

“It’s fine,” She smiled. “Just let us know next time.”

“I will.”

The social worker knelt down next to Blaine’s bed and opened her hands, Kurt crawling forward and allowing her to lift him up.

“Do you wanna come and get some breakfast?” She asked Kurt in a high pitched voice.

Kurt nodded, rubbing at his eyes despite his sheep being in his hand and reaching out for Blaine with his other hand, letting out a tiny noise.

Blaine smiled, sitting up and taking Kurt’s hand before following them downstairs to the kitchen.

Again, Kurt sat on Blaine’s lap while he ate and sat his sheep on his lap. Blaine knew that he was receiving weird looks from Nick and Jeff, but he ignored them in favour of feeding spoonful’s of cereal to Kurt whenever he put his spoon back in his bowl and leant his head against Blaine’s chest.

Kurt made a noise of protest when Blaine tried to feed him yet another spoonful of cereal and buried his face in Blaine’s shirt, fisting it with his little hand.

“What’s wrong?” Blaine asked softly, carding his fingers through the three year olds hair.

“Doh feel guhd.” Kurt mumbled into Blaine’s shirt, sniffling a little afterwards.

Blaine looked up at one of the social workers, unsure of what to do, until they came over and knelt down in front of the three year old.

“Hey sweetie, what’s wrong?” She asked, brushing his chestnut coloured hair out of his face.

“I don’t feel good,” Kurt whined, the social worker feeling his forehead.

“You’re a little warm,” She noted. “Do you want some medicine?” Kurt shook his head. “Do you want to go back up to bed?” Kurt shook his head again. The social worker sighed, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s cheek before standing up. “Can you just keep an eye on him and let us know if he gets any worse, please?” She asked Blaine, who nodded in reply.

A little while later Blaine took Kurt into the living room and sat him on his lap and put a movie on the TV – he was just thankful that the rest of the kids were playing in the garden or there would’ve been a riot over what they watched – for the little boy, who eventually fell asleep in his arms.

“Take him up to bed,” One of the social workers whispered from the doorway, making sure not to wake the three year old up. “If he wakes up just play with him or read him a story.”

“Okay,” Blaine replied, lifting the small child up and eliciting a whimper from him, but surprisingly without waking him up.

He managed to get Kurt upstairs and in bed without waking him up but once the little boy was tucked into bed, Blaine couldn’t bring himself to leave him so he sat on the edge of the bed and combed his fingers through Kurt’s hair, smiling when the three year old snuggled closer to him.

A few weeks later, Kurt was sat next to Blaine on a coach that was driving towards the beach. A few of the older kids had been complaining that they didn’t go out enough, so all of the social workers banded together and planned a trip to the beach. Kurt was excited to be going to the beach for the first time, happy clanking his bucket and spade together while he played games with Blaine on the way there.

He’d been a little agitated in the morning after being told that he couldn’t take his sheep with him as it would get covered in sand and water, but he eventually allowed a social worker to safely lock it in their office. Now, however, he was eagerly asking questions about the beach and bouncing excitedly in his seat.

When they arrived, Blaine sat with Kurt in the sand and built sandcastles with him. Being the youngest child, the social workers were worrying about him far too much and insisting that he put a new layer of sun cream on every half hour at least. Blaine couldn’t help but laugh as Kurt scrunched his nose up while what was probably his twentieth layer of sun cream got applied to his face and made little noises of protest.

“Blaine?” Kurt said cutely, looking up at the thirteen year old and squinting through the sun.

“Yes?”

“Can you take me in the water?” The three year old asked.

Blaine looked up at the social worker who had been slathering sun cream over the little boy’s face a few minutes beforehand for permission, noticing the worried look on her face.

“Well…I guess, if you don’t go out too far, it’ll be okay…” She said slowly as if she were mulling it over at the same time. “Can you come with me and get changed first though, please?” She asked the little boy who nodded happily, jumping up from his seat in the sand and taking her hand. “And you mister,” She said to Blaine with a smirk.

Blaine laughed and got up from the floor, brushing the sand off his shorts before following her to the changing rooms.

Once they were changed, they emerged from the changing rooms and Kurt looked up at Blaine with bright blue eyes.

“I’ll race you,” Blaine said to the little boy with a smile.

Kurt giggled and nodded, running after Blaine when he shouted ‘GO!’ – The two of them ignoring the social worker shouting at them not to go too far.

As soon as they got close to the sea, Blaine held his hand out for Kurt. The three year old gratefully placed his hand in the thirteen year olds and padded his tiny feet just into the water. Kurt giggled as waves crashed onto the shore past his little legs, stomping around a little and getting used to the strange feeling of soggy sand seeping between his toes.

“The sand feels funny,” Kurt giggled.

“That’s because it’s wet,” Blaine laughed, never letting go of the little hand attached to his own.

“Splosh, splosh!” The three year old exclaimed, stamping his feet in the squishy sand as the waves continued to crash onto the shore. Blaine couldn’t help but laugh because honestly, Kurt was the most adorable little thing he’d ever seen.

The two boys spent a long period of time in the sea, splashing each other with water – Blaine being extra gentle so that he didn’t hurt Kurt – and chasing each other along the shallow water. They tried playing with one of the beach balls that they had, but with the ball being almost bigger than Kurt’s whole body, that didn’t exactly work properly.

Soon enough, Kurt was becoming sleepy and Blaine was carrying him back up the beach while he rested his little head on the thirteen year olds shoulder. He sat back down on the sand with Kurt on his lap, snuggling into his chest.

Kurt let out a soft whimper, clinging to the t-shirt that Blaine had put on shortly beforehand.

“What’s wrong?” Blaine asked, smiling at how cute Kurt looked snuggled up to him with his hair sticking up in fifty different positions.

“Cold,” Kurt said simply, snuggling closer.

Blaine reached behind him and pulled his hoodie out of his bag, knowing it would be massive on Kurt but also knowing that there wasn’t really anything else there to warm him up. He pulled the jumper over Kurt’s tiny head and rolled the sleeves up once it was on him, his little hands barely peeping through the ends of them.

Kurt flapped his arms about, giggling when the sleeves rolled down a tiny bit, covering his hands. Blaine shook his head with silent laughter, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s head and cuddling him back to his chest.

Kurt had fallen asleep by the time they were getting ready to leave and Blaine was gently lifting him up and balancing him on his hip, shushing Wes when he came over to him, blabbering about some starfish that he and Jeff had found washed up on the shore.

“You really care about him, don’t you?” Wes whispered, nodding towards the sleeping toddler.

Blaine looked down at the little boy asleep in his arms and smiled, looking back up at Wes and squinting through the setting sun. “Yeah, I really do.”

“Ignore what Nick says about it being weird, it’s not,” Wes replied. “It’s sweet. I mean, if the circumstances were different it would be a little odd having an attachment that strong to him but we’re in a freaking orphanage, it’s not as if he has the largest supply of people looking out for him.”

Blaine smiled at his friend. “It’s kind of weird, I mean…I didn’t even know he existed a few weeks ago. I’d seen him around the home, obviously, but I never really took any notice of him and now it’s like…he’s like my baby brother, in a way.”

Kurt made a snuffling noise in his sleep, gripping Blaine’s t-shirt tighter in his little hand.

“He’s adorable,” Wes commented.

“He really is,” Blaine laughed. “You should’ve seen him in the sea earlier, he was so fascinated by the way the sand felt when it was wet.”

When they finally reached the coach, Blaine gently eased Kurt into his seat, failing in not waking him up. The three year old whimpered, fluttering his beautiful blue eyes open and looking at Blaine sleepily. Blaine smiled, pressing a kiss to his nose before pulling his seatbelt over him and sitting down next to him.

“Dummy,” Kurt whimpered, pressing his face into Blaine’s arm.

Blaine was about to get one of the social workers, but apparently Kurt’s tiny whimper was overheard and there was suddenly a dummy being passed to him. Blaine gently put the dummy in Kurt’s mouth and smiled when the three year old immediately closed his eyes and cuddled up to his arm.

The day that Kurt was fostered by a family was the day that Blaine hoped would never come. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Kurt to have a family, of course he did, he just hoped he would never have to say goodbye to the three year old.

That, and the fact that Kurt seemed reluctant to the prospect of going to stay with new people. Blaine figured that he was more or less forced into it – he was just a baby after all, he didn’t really understand the whole foster system idea.

Blaine felt even worse when it came to Kurt actually leaving. He’d spent the whole day with Kurt, the three year old crying anytime he put him down, and that included trying to get him into the car of his foster family.

Kurt was bawling his eyes out, clinging onto the collar of Blaine’s shirt and almost cutting off the thirteen year olds air supply.

“Blaine,” Kurt sobbed, kicking his feet around as Blaine tried to sit him in his car seat. “Blaine!” The three year old screamed, more tears leaking from his little blue eyes. Kurt was practically hyperventilating; his breath coming out in sharp little hisses as sobs wracked his little body.

Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt’s tear stained cheek, trying to keep himself together as the little boy clung onto his shirt and screamed and sobbed for all he was worth.

The thirteen year old reluctantly detangled himself from Kurt and shut the car door, wanting nothing more than to just take him into his arms and never let him go. Blaine felt guilty, despite doing nothing wrong. Kurt trusted him, he was the only person that the three year old had and he’d let him go, ignoring his screaming and crying, ignoring the fact that he obviously didn’t want to go, he left the boy who was like his baby brother to go with two strangers whom he clearly didn’t want to stay with, and for that he felt guilty.

Blaine wrapped his arms around himself as the car slowly pulled away, trying to ignore the screams and cries of his name and trying to ignore the heartbroken face that was staring at him from the car window.

“Are you okay?” Elaine, one of the social workers, asked Blaine once the car was out of sight, placing a comforting hand on his back.

“Yeah…yeah, I – is he okay?”

“He will be,” She sighed. “He’s just scared. He’s only a baby, he doesn’t understand what’s happening. I mean, he’s been here since he was two and a half and although that’s only like, a year, it’s more or less half of his life.”

Blaine nodded, staring down at the ground. “I just hated seeing him like that, and I couldn’t do anything to make him feel better.”

“I know,” She smiled sadly. “Come on.” She said, leading him back inside.

The day that Kurt left was also the day that Blaine started a fight for the first time. It wasn’t his fault, not really. Well, he didn’t think of it that way anyway.

He was playing chess with Nick, Wes and Jeff watching from beside them, but his heart wasn’t really in the game. His heart was in a home with two strangers, probably crying its eyes out still.

“Blaine,” Wes laughed. “You’ve gotten so much worse at this.”

“Maybe if he didn’t spend all of his time with a three year old he’d actually have a fair chance,” Nick muttered under his breath, but all three of his friends heard.

Blaine glared at him over the board, his heart pounding in his chest. He ignored it, however, and took his next move.

“At least he’s gone now,” Nick muttered next, and that was when Blaine snapped.

The game of chess was long forgotten when Blaine knocked all of the pieces over in a scrabble to grab Nick by the front of his shirt.

“Don’t you dare talk about him like that,” Blaine said threateningly.

“Blaine,” Wes warned, but that didn’t really do much.

“He’s a baby, Blaine. It’s weird,” Nick retaliated, the fact that Blaine was a lot stronger than him obviously not bothering him.

“I said don’t talk about him like that,” Blaine said slowly, his voice deeper than usual.

“Or what?” Nick returned.

Nobody knew who pushed who first but the next thing they knew, Blaine was pinning Nick to the floor harshly.

Jeff had already run out of the room to find Elaine, but they didn’t manage to get back to the living room before both Nick and Blaine had bloody noses.

“Blaine!” Elaine shouted, grabbing the thirteen year old and pulling him off of Nick, restraining him when he tried to run at him. Wes had to grab Nick to stop him from going at Blaine, but neither of them could stop the deathly glares the two boys were sending each other.

“What has gotten into you two!?” She exclaimed.

“He started it!” Nick shouted at her, not caring how childish he sounded.

“I don’t care who started it,” She said, holding Blaine tighter when he tried to go at Nick again. “Wes, Jeff, can you take him up to the bathroom and clean him up please?” She asked, the two boys nodding. “You,” She said to Blaine. “Come with me.”

Only once Blaine was seated in Elaine’s office with the social worker holding tissue to his bleeding nose did he allow himself to cry.

“It’s okay,” She said softly, rubbing Blaine’s back gently while keeping the tissue in place. “It’s okay to miss him.”

“You don’t get it,” Blaine cried, wiping at his eyes. “Nobody gets it.”

“Gets what?”

“I lost my best friend today,” Blaine sobbed. “And it really freaking hurts.”

“Oh Blaine,” Elaine sighed, brushing his curls off of his forehead. “I know it hurts, but starting a fight isn’t going to solve that.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Blaine cried. “He just…he was winding me up, he always winds me up, and I snapped.”

“It’s okay,” She assured him. “Just don’t do it again, okay? Nosebleeds freak me out.”

Blaine laughed a little bit, wiping at his eyes.

“There’s that smile I usually see so much of,” She smiled, pulling the bloody tissue away from Blaine’s nose before throwing it in the bin and grabbing a small plastic cup, filling it with water and handing it to Blaine. “Drink this, before you make yourself sick.”

Blaine slowly drunk the water, before handing the cup back to Elaine, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. “My nose hurts.”

“Yeah, you’ve got a nice bruise to go with that too,” She laughed.

Blaine stood up and looked in the mirror that was on the wall, groaning at the purpling bruise that covered the left side of his nose.

“I’m the world’s biggest idiot.”

“No you’re not. You’re only a little bit of an idiot,” Elaine smiled.

Blaine couldn’t stop himself from laughing – that much was true.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Blaine sighed. “I think so.”

“Good. Now go get some ice for that nose, and apologise to Nick.”

“Must I?” Blaine groaned.

“Yes, you must.”

“Fine,” Blaine sighed dramatically, making his way to the door but stopping in the doorway and turning back to face Elaine. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Elaine smiled. “And I’ll try and see if I can arrange a phone call with Kurt, okay?”

Blaine nodded, a small smile on his face, before he left the room and made his way into the kitchen to get some ice for his nose. He wrapped it in a cloth and slowly pressed it to his bruised nose, hissing at the ice cold sting.

Wes entered the kitchen a few minutes later, getting some ice for Nick.

“Are you okay?” He asked the curly haired teen.

“Yeah,” Blaine replied, and he wasn’t lying. He honestly did feel a whole lot better, maybe he just needed something to take his anger out on.

“How’s your nose?” Wes laughed.

“I think it might be broken,” Blaine groaned. “Nick’s stronger than he looks.”

“So are you by the looks of Nick’s face,”

“Oh god, what did I do?”

“Not too much, but he may or may not have a bruise on his cheek and scratch marks on his neck from where you grabbed him.”

“Ugh, I have to go apologise,”

“Come on,” Wes smiled before leading Blaine upstairs to the bathroom where Jeff was still trying to deal with Nick’s bloody nose.

“Nick,” Blaine said, leaning against the door frame.

“What?” Nick snapped, hissing at Jeff pressing too harshly against his nose.

“I’m sorry.”

Nick sighed, looking up at Blaine through his eyelashes as he evidently couldn’t move his head. “Me too,” He replied. “For what I said about Kurt and for hitting you.”

“I deserved it,” Blaine laughed. “The hitting part, I mean.”

“So did I,” Nick agreed with a laugh before crying out in pain. “Jeff!”

“Sorry!” Jeff exclaimed frustratedly. “If I’m hurting you that much, do it yourself!”

Blaine laughed, making his way into the bathroom and kneeling in front of Nick. “Come here,” He said, grabbing some clean tissue. “Lift your head up a little,” He instructed, gently holding the tissue to Nick’s nose once he followed what Blaine told him.

“Your nose looks disgusting,” Nick commented with a laugh.

“Yeah, well, you don’t look much better than I do right now,” Blaine chuckled.

Neither of the boys noticed Wes and Jeff leaving the room until Nick looked up and realised they were by themselves.

“You miss him don’t you?” Nick questioned as Blaine took the tissue away from his nose and started again with a fresh one.

“Yeah,” Blaine sighed.

“I’m not gonna pretend to get it,” Nick replied. “But I’m not gonna act childish about it anymore.”

“I don’t even get it, really. All I know is I saw a little boy who had no friends, I couldn’t stop myself from keeping him company and now… now he means the entire world to me.”

“He’s that important to you, huh?” Nick smiled.

“Yeah, he is,” Blaine replied, a small smile tugging at his lips as he slowly removed the tissue from Nick’s nose. “Voila, no more blood.”

“Thank you,” Nick laughed. “I find it kind of ironic that you’re the one cleaning me up though.”

“Tell me about it.” Blaine replied, rolling his eyes.

A few days later, Blaine made his way to Elaine’s office, planning on asking her if she’d done anything about the phone call she’d promised Blaine. He knocked on her door, waiting until he heard her telling him to go in before opening the door.

“Hi,”

“Hey,” Elaine smiled.

“I was, um, just wondering if…you’d done anything about the phone call with Kurt?”

“I actually just got off the phone with his foster parents,”

“And?”

“And…I can do you one better than a phone call,” She sighed, Blaine raising his eyebrows in confusion. “Kurt’s coming home.”

“Wait, what?” Blaine said. “Why?” He was confused. Why would anyone want to give Kurt up?

“Apparently he’s not happy there,” Elaine explained. “He won’t play with them and he screams every time they try to pick him up. He won’t even let them tuck him into bed.”

“But…but…”

“I’m going to pick him up now.”

“Can I come?” Blaine asked before he even realised he was saying it. “I just…”

“Sure,” Elaine smiled. “I think he could use a little pick-me-up right now anyway.”

So that’s exactly what Blaine did. He got into Elaine’s car and went with her to pick the three year old up to bring him home.

Once they arrived, Elaine knocked on the door while Blaine stood nervously behind her. The door opened and the second Kurt saw Blaine, he was running towards him.

“Blaine!” Kurt squealed happily.

Blaine grinned, kneeling down and opening his arms for Kurt. The three year old ran towards Blaine, jumping into his arms and wrapping his arms around the thirteen year olds neck.

“Hey buddy,” Blaine said, hugging Kurt tight, his smile evident in his voice. “I missed you so much.”

Kurt pulled back and smiled at Blaine before frowning a little and gasping. “Blaine! You hurted yourself.”

Oh yeah…Blaine forgot he had a huge bruise on his nose still. Blaine looked up at Elaine for help but she’d already gone inside to get Kurt’s bags.

“I’m okay, I promise,” Blaine said.

“Did you fall over?”

“Uh, yeah…” Blaine said, and it would’ve been unconvincing had Kurt known any different. “I tripped over a toy.”

Kurt giggled. “Silly!”

Blaine couldn’t stop the grin that covered his mouth in that moment as he wrapped his arms back around the three year old and lifted him into the air. “I love you so much you little goofball.”

Kurt giggled, leaning his head against Blaine’s cheek before pressing a kiss there. “I love you too.”

“Ready to go, little one?” Elaine asked as she put Kurt’s bags in the back of the car.

“Mhm,” Kurt hummed, nodding his head and wrapping his arms around Blaine’s neck.

Soon enough, Kurt’s fourth birthday was approaching. Blaine had already turned fourteen and had a small ‘party’ but the best part of it, to him anyway, was when Elaine allowed him to watch a movie with Kurt in the living room without anybody else. Sure, they’d only watched Peter Pan, but it was still better than hanging out with a bunch of people that he wasn’t even friends with, really.

The morning of Kurt’s fourth birthday, he climbed out of bed and made his way to Blaine’s bedroom, shyly creaking the door open and peeping his head inside.

“Blaine?” Kurt said quietly in his adorable high pitched voice.

“Hey munchkin,” Blaine smiled, emerging from where his face was buried in his wardrobe. “Happy Birthday.”

Kurt smiled cutely, walking into the fourteen year olds bedroom and allowing him to lift him into his arms.

“I like your costume,” Blaine said sitting on the edge of his bed and sitting the now four year old on his lap.

“Rawr,” Kurt giggled. He was dressed as a dinosaur, a costume which he was saving ‘specially for my burfday’ as he’d told Blaine around a mouthful of chocolate one day.

“I have something for you,” Blaine said, reaching into the drawer next to his bed and pulling a small bag out.

“What is it?” Kurt asked, accepting the bag out of Blaine’s hands.

“Open it,” Blaine laughed.

Kurt slowly opened the bag, pulling out two small figurines.

“Peter Pan and Tinkerbell!” Kurt exclaimed happily. “Thank you,” He said, looking up at Blaine with an adorable grin.

“You’re welcome,” Blaine laughed, kissing the top of Kurt’s nose. “Now, I think you and I should go to breakfast so that you can get the special birthday waffles Elaine promised you.”

Kurt giggled, wrapping his arms around Blaine’s neck as he was lifted up and carried downstairs. They made their way over to Elaine, who gave Kurt a huge kiss on the cheek and told him that he was the cutest birthday dinosaur she’d ever seen, eliciting a fit of giggles from the little boy. Once he was happily seated on Blaine’s lap at the table, she brought breakfast over for the two of them and left them alone to eat.

Once they were finished, Kurt turned around and stood up on Blaine’s lap, using the fourteen year olds shoulders to keep him up. Blaine kept him arms wrapped tightly around the little boys’ legs and waist so that he didn’t slip and fall. He actually sort of wondered how Kurt wasn’t towering over him from the position he was in, but he wasn’t the biggest four year old ever so it was kind of understandable.

“Guess what!” Kurt exclaimed.

“What?” Blaine asked excitedly.

“I’m four now!”

“No you’re not!”

“Yes I am!” Kurt giggled.

“You’re too little to be four,” Blaine replied, tickling Kurt softly.

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine’s neck and hugged him, their faces squishing together.

“Blaine?”

“Yes?”

“You’re my best friend.” Kurt replied sweetly.

Blaine suddenly felt himself welling up at those four simple words and hugged Kurt tighter.

“You’re mine too,” Blaine said, smiling.

As with Blaine’s birthday, the two of them spent the whole day together. Only, they had no idea that it may be the last day they would ever get to spend together.

It started that night. Blaine took Kurt to bed and read him Peter Pan, as per usual, the little boy still dressed in his dinosaur costume. He pressed a kiss to his forehead once he was asleep and slipped outside of his room before making his way downstairs to spend time with his friends, as he did every night. He got into bed and drifted to sleep at the same time he did every night, only on this night he was woken up by a brain piercing noise.

It took him a minute to fully wake up, but once he did he realised that it was the fire alarm that had woken him up. He climbed out of bed and made his way downstairs and outside, only realising that there was an actual fire once he was outside.

“Somebody’s missing,” One of the social workers commented once everyone was outside, pacing in front of the scared group of children. “Who’s missing!?”

It took a second for him to realise, but he soon noticed that there was something wrong. There was usually a small body attached to his making adorable giggling noises.

“Kurt!” Blaine screamed, immediately running back inside despite the flames that were capturing the whole home and the screams of his friends and social workers telling him to stop. He didn’t care. The only thing going through his head as he ran through the house filled with flames was fire, fire, KURT.

He finally reached the four year olds bedroom and once he did, he heard heart-breaking cries coming from inside. The fire hadn’t spread inside Kurt’s room yet, but the door was slightly open so he would clearly be able to see it and he could probably hear everyone outside as they weren’t exactly quiet.

Blaine darted inside the room as soon as he reached it to find Kurt standing on his bed, screaming and crying his eyes out, his sheep clutched tightly to his chest. The poor kid looked like he was going to be sick, and he probably would if he didn’t calm down soon. A loud sob escaped his body once he saw Blaine and he immediately wrapped his arms around the fourteen year olds neck when he lifted him up.

“Shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you,” Blaine said, running his hand through Kurt’s baby soft hair as Kurt cried into his shoulder, his breathing become frantic. “Kurt, I need to get you outside but I don’t want anything to happen to you so just close your eyes and keep your head down, okay?”

Kurt began to cry harder but nodded, burying his face in Blaine’s neck and hugging his sheep. Blaine took a deep breath. Now that he had Kurt in his arms he was terrified to run back through the house – it didn’t matter before, all that mattered was getting Kurt out – but now, now it fully sunk in what he’d just done, and he had to do it again.

Clutching the little boy close to him, Blaine cradled Kurt’s head to his neck in case he looked up and got freaked out, or he inhaled too much smoke before he opened the door, running out and following the only path he could find. Blaine felt lost, there was just fire, everywhere. He was beginning to feel dizzy, the only thing he could hear was Kurt’s sobs as he tried to navigate his way outside.

He finally, finally made it outside. He could faintly hear people screaming his name and he sort of registered the tears running down his face but he sort of couldn’t breathe and felt like he was going to pass out.

He saw Elaine lifting Kurt out of his arms and he felt himself being led by another social worker towards an ambulance and oh, when did that get there? He felt himself being eased into a sitting position and he felt and saw the social worker gently holding a bottle of water to his mouth. He felt himself swallowing the water and he felt the oxygen mask being placed on his face, but that didn’t matter. He wanted, he needed to see if Kurt was okay, but there was something wet and cold touching his face and ouch, that stung. His face scrunched up a little when he saw blood on the…whatever had just touched his face but there was a firm hand on his back and a soothing voice in his ear calming him down until he remember that Kurt wasn’t with him.

“Kurt,” Blaine breathed out once he remembered that he could talk. It came out muffled and barely audible, but the social worker knew exactly what he was saying.

“He’s okay,” She assured him. “You can see him in a little while, he’s shaken up and you’re barely conscious.”

Blaine shut his eyes. His head was throbbing and he felt like he was going to be sick, although that wouldn’t exactly work, what with the oxygen mask and all. He could hear talking around him, but he was tired and nothing really matter except…sleep.

When Blaine woke up, his vision was blurry. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust his eyes. It took him a few moments to realise that he was still in the back of the ambulance and everything was exactly the same except he was lying down and everything felt a little less fuzzy.

He sat up but winced and started coughing because wow, okay, that hurt. He felt the same firm pressure on his back from before rubbing soothing circles as he tried to remember how to breathe. He almost started laughing because he couldn’t remember how to breathe even with an oxygen mask on but no, laughing would hurt and he was still coughing and why couldn’t he stop coughing?

Slowly, Blaine stopped coughing and began to breathe again, little by little. His head still hurt but it didn’t feel like it was being crushed anymore and his face was numb…why was his face numb? Blaine brought a hand up to feel his cheek, just under his eye and winced when he felt a cut there, realising why he saw blood before.

“Kurt,” Blaine breathed out. “I want Kurt.”

“Blaine, he’s really freaked out at the moment and you’re not exactly in the best condition right now.”

“Please,” Blaine said, a tear rolling down his cheek that he couldn’t stop from leaving his eye and his breathing quickening as he began to freak out a little. “Please.”

“Okay, shh, calm down,” The social worker said, doing her best to stop Blaine from having a panic attack. “I’ll go and get him, I don’t know how he’ll react though so please just try to stay calm.”

Blaine’s breathing slowed down a little although it was still a little frantic as he could barely breathe as it was, without freaking out.

A few moments later Elaine was making her way over to Blaine, holding Kurt. He looked a little scared but a lot more relaxed than he had been as he rested his head on Elaine’s shoulder and drank water out of a sippy cup that Blaine would’ve found adorable if he could even remember his last name.

The four year old seemed to freak out a little bit when he saw Blaine. Although Blaine had no idea what he looked like in that moment, he felt completely wrecked so he could only imagine he looked a whole lot worse. Plus the cut on his face that was who knows how big and the oxygen mask probably didn’t help.

“Kurt,” Blaine said as softly as he could. His chest was heaving and his voice sounded ridiculously hoarse even with the mask muffling it. “I want –”

“To hold him, I know,” Elaine finished for him, sitting next to him on the bed and sitting Kurt on her lap. “But you can barely sit up right now so I don’t think that would be wise.”

Blaine looked down at the four year old. He was half snuggled into Elaine’s stomach, still drinking from his sippy cup as he looked up at Blaine through his eyelashes. Something was different…something changed…he was wearing different clothes. Wait, how was he wearing different clothes? All of his stuff was in his room and the house was…wasn’t on fire anymore. Blaine felt delirious. Everything was the same as it was before he passed out…only, it wasn’t.

“Blaine?” Elaine said softly. “Are you okay?”

Blaine turned his head to look at her from where he’d been looking at the home that had previously been in flames.

He nodded slightly. He sort of felt like he was floating, like his feet weren’t on solid ground but…he was sitting, of course they weren’t on solid ground. Blaine closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, his head spinning a little.

“Do you want some water?” He heard Elaine ask from next to him.

Blaine nodded again, only not too much as he was afraid his head would fall off. The next thing he knew, a cup was being passed to him and he was lowering the oxygen mask a little and wow, that made everything a lot worse than it was. Still, he drunk the water that was given to him and put the mask back on, sighing a bit as it made everything a little easier.

“I have to tell you something, but I don’t want to freak you out,” Elaine said, Blaine looking at her and scrunching his eyebrows together.

“Tell me,” Blaine breathed, taking several deep breaths before attempting to speak again. “Please.”

“I…Kurt’s moving to a different home,” She said softly. “It’s better for kids his age and it might make things easier for him.” She explained, looking down at the little boy who now had his eyes closed but was still sipping his water slowly.

“But he – he,” Blaine couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t freaking out, surprisingly, he just found saying more than two words at once extremely difficult.

“Shh, breathe,” Elaine said, rubbing his back gently.

Blaine took a few deep breaths, closing his eyes before opening them again and attempting to speak again. “He…he won’t…have any…anyone…there for…there for him…he…he…he…he has…he has me…me…me…here…” He got out finally, barely able to breathe after saying so much.

“I’m actually going with him,” She told him. “I deal with most of his stuff usually anyway, and it’ll make the transition easier for him.”

“But…but…you…you…you’re the…the on- only…only…” Blaine closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Take your time,” Elaine said, still rubbing his back gently.

“You’re the…the only…only…social…wuh…worker who…who likes…likes…likes…like me…”

Elaine laughed, bringing her hand up to card it through Blaine’s messy curls.

“You know that’s not true, we all love you.”

“Fine…you…you…you’re the only…only social…social…worker…that…that…I…I…I…I…I like…” Blaine replied, smiling a little despite the state that he was in.

Elaine laughed again, leaning over to press a kiss to Blaine’s cheek.

“How…how…how are we…we…meant…meant…meant to…to…stay…here…any…any…anyway?” Blaine asked. “I…I…ran through…through there…there…there twice, every…every…thing…everything was…was…was on fire…it…it…it,” Blaine breathed in again, his chest still heaving with every breath he took. “It must be…be…burnt to…to…to a…to a crisp.”

“You’ll probably move to a different home, or you’ll all be split up, I honestly don’t know,” Elaine said truthfully. “But you, mister, should get some rest,” She said, smiling lovingly at the fourteen year old. “You went through a lot tonight and you’re kind of a mess.”

“Thank…thank…thank…thank you,” Blaine said with a breathy little laugh.

“You’re welcome,” She smiled. “No but seriously, get some sleep. I promise it’ll make you feel better.”

“Wuh…will…will…will…will you…you…be here when…when…when…when I…I…I…I…wake…up?” Blaine asked and god, he probably sounded so pathetic right now.

Elaine nodded. “I promise we won’t leave without saying goodbye.”

After that, Blaine allowed himself to be eased back onto the bed. He allowed the blanket to be tucked around him and he allowed the kiss that Elaine pressed to his forehead as he shut his eyes. He was half asleep as soon as he shut his eyes, but he didn’t miss the tiny pair of lips that touched his cheek and that belonged to the last person on his mind as he drifted to sleep. Kurt.

When Blaine awoke, he felt relatively normal again. He still felt a little delirious and out of it, but he could breathe a little more and his head was a lot less fuzzy. As he sat up, he momentarily wondered why he was still in an ambulance outside the home and why all of the kids were still outside, it sort of made him wonder if he was only sleeping for two minutes at a time though. He didn’t care, however, as he slowly removed the oxygen mask and adjusted to breathing normal air. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t choke a little at first, but that didn’t stop him from climbing out of the bed he was in and leaving the ambulance, trying to find someone, anyone who could help him find Kurt.

“Blaine?” Blaine heard from behind him and he spun around a little too fast, almost falling over when he became incredibly dizzy. “Woah,” The person…whoever it was said, putting their arm around him and holding him upright as he tried to catch his breath. Once Blaine had stopped wheezing and felt a little less dizzy, he looked up to see one of his social workers looking down at him worriedly. “What are you doing?”

“Elaine…I…Kurt…” Blaine breathed.

“Blaine sweetie,” The social worker sighed. “They already left.”

“No…no…no…no,” Blaine stuttered. Oh god, he was hyperventilating. “No…she…she…she promise…promised…”

“Blaine, shh, calm down,” The social worker said worriedly.

Blaine registered wetness on his cheeks but he was too dizzy and scared to care what was happening.

“She…she…she…promised…promised…promised I…I could…could say good…goodbye…Kurt…Kurt…I…Kurt…”

Blaine couldn’t breathe. The world was spinning too fast. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know who he was with.

“Kurt…Kurt…” Blaine cried, barely noticing that he was making his way forward, well as forward was he possibly could in his state.

The last thing Blaine saw was someone…someone who looked familiar running towards him, screaming his name. That was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.

Noise was stupid. It was stupid and annoying and it shouldn’t exist.

That was what Blaine decided, however, as he slowly stirred into consciousness and heard murmurings around him.

Light was stupid too. Who invented light? Whoever it was, was mean.

He slowly blinked his eyes open, wincing as nothing but light came into his sight.

Was he dead? He felt dead…well, kinda. He didn’t really know what it felt like to be dead.

The room was spinning. Everything was bright and spinny.

There was something on his face…there was something covering his mouth and nose and…oh, right. That was helping him breathe. Wait, why was it helping him breathe?

He closed his eyes again, trying to remember what had happened.

He remember noises…loud noises. Fire…there was lots of that. He remembered…he remembered crying…he remembered running…fast. He remembered passing out and waking back up… Fear. He remembered fear…he remembered…he remembered Kurt.

Blaine shot up in bed, wincing immediately as he was overtaken by a strong coughing fit.

“Blaine,” The fourteen year old heard from beside him as a hand started to rub his back gently. Blaine recognised that voice, it was…it was…Wes.

The coughing slowly died down, his breathing become frantic for a while before he calmed down a little and remembered to take deep breaths.

“Are you okay?” Wes asked, still rubbing Blaine’s back gently.

Blaine shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut and willing himself not to cry.

“Can you get him some water please?” Wes asked someone in the room. Blaine had no idea who and didn’t really care either. Finding out would require opening his eyes and that wasn’t something he was willing to do in that moment.

A few moments later, Blaine’s oxygen mask was being lowered and a cup was being held to his lips. Blaine felt ridiculous. He couldn’t believe his friend had to help him drink a cup of water.

Once he’d finished, the mask was put back in place and Blaine opened his eyes, looking at Wes through his tears.

“He’s gone,” Blaine breathed, his unshed tears finally leaving his eyes.

“What?” Wes asked confusedly.

“Kurt…he’s gone,” Blaine cried, shaking his head. “He’s gone and I might not ever see him again.” He said, his voice breaking as he broke down into tears.

“Blaine,” Wes said worriedly, pulling his friend against his chest and trying to comfort him as he cried his eyes out. “Blaine, you’re gonna freak yourself out again.” He said.

Blaine just shook his head, crying harder as he buried his face in Wes’ chest the best he could with the oxygen mask on his face.

Blaine was broken. He was completely broken and he didn’t know how he could be fixed.


	2. Chapter 2

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

 

"Santana! I swear to god if you put my sweater in the washing machine again I am going to physically rip your head off and use it as –"

 

"Woah Hummel, calm down," Santana and Kurt had met in their freshman year of college and become roommates almost instantly. Although she could be a pain to live with, Santana was Kurt's best friend and she was always there when he needed her. "It's in the bathroom."

 

Kurt sighed, all but storming into the bathroom to retrieve his jumper and hang it in its correct place.

 

"What's got your panties in a twist anyway?" Santana called to him as he made his way into his bedroom.

 

"I'm fine," Kurt replied, entering the living room and slumping down on the sofa next to his best friend.

 

"Liar. You need to loosen up a little. You're eighteen for Christ's sake, not eighty."

 

"I'm nineteen tomorrow," Kurt pointed out.

 

"What difference does that make?" Santana asked, shoving her best friend in the side. "You still act like an old woman half the time."

 

"Gee, thanks," Kurt said sarcastically.

 

"I'm serious," Santana said, turning to sit sideways on the sofa so she was facing Kurt. "You're miserable. You have your fabulous little routine that you're great at keeping to but it's the same thing every single day. You need to try new things and actually have fun for once."

 

"I am not miserable!"

 

"Okay fine, you're grumpy," She said, cutting Kurt off when he tried to protest. "Don't even try to deny it. You nearly murdered me just then because you couldn't find your precious little jumper."

 

Kurt slumped down further in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest and groaning a little bit.

 

"Do you know what you and I should do?" Santana asked, a mischievous smirk on her face that Kurt couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at. "We should go out tonight for your birthday and actually have fun for once."

 

"Santana…"

 

"Kurt…"

 

"I'd like to be able to leave bed on my nineteenth birthday, thank you very much."

 

"I didn't say you had to get wasted," Santana pointed out.

 

"Yeah, you said that last time and what happened?"

 

"That was your fault," Santana retaliated. "I was almost…sort of completely sober."

 

"I don't know," Kurt groaned.

 

"Kuuuuuuurt," Santana whined. "Please?"

 

"You just want me to go so you have an excuse to get drunk, make out with girls and not regret it."

 

"Oh, like you don't wanna go and make out with guys and not regret it," Santana returned. "Give me a legitimate reason why you can't or don't want to go and I'll drop the subject."

 

"Because I…I'm allergic to alcohol," Kurt tried.

 

"Firstly, we both know that's not true and secondly, even if it was I never said you had to drink."

 

"Okay well…I…"

 

"You…" Santana said, trailing off. "Can't think of a reason why you can't go, because there isn't one."

 

"Fine," Kurt groaned. "But…" He said, cutting off Santana's excited cheers. "I have one condition…well, two."

 

"What?"

 

"You have to have a birthday movie night with me tomorrow, no matter how hung-over you are, and you can't complain about the movie choices,"

 

"Fine," Santana agreed, a grin attached to her face.

 

"And," Kurt emphasised. "If either one of us ends up vomiting, you're cleaning it up."

 

"I usually clean it up anyway,"

 

"You make it sound like we throw up all the time," Kurt laughed.

 

"Whatever," Santana replied, rolling her eyes. "Now, go make yourself look pretty."

 

"I'm already regretting this," Kurt muttered as they entered some club that Santana had dragged him to.

 

"Loosen up," Santana shouted over the music, physically shaking Kurt by the shoulders as if that would make a difference. "Have some fun for once."

 

"I think someone has an admirer," Wes laughed, nodding towards a boy who he noticed staring at Blaine repetitively.

 

Blaine looked up, smiling when the boy blushed and looked away. "You're just jealous because he isn't looking at you."

 

"If it was a girl staring at you, maybe, but no…definitely not jealous," Wes said, still laughing. "You should go talk to him."

 

"Oh god," Blaine groaned. "Okay, I am not drunk enough to have this conversation."

 

"What conversation?"

 

"The 'you really need to get yourself a boyfriend' conversation," Blaine laughed, walking away from Wes to get another drink.

 

"Go and talk to him," Santana said directly in Kurt's ear, making him jump.

 

"No!" Kurt exclaimed as if that was the worst thing he could possibly do.

 

"Kurt," Santana warned.

 

"Santana," Kurt replied in the same tone.

 

"Go," She demanded, pointing towards the guy that Kurt was staring at, not phased in the slightest when he saw her pointing at him.

 

"Santana," Kurt said through gritted teeth, blushing and turning his head away, trying to ignore the smirk on the guys face.

 

"Come on," She said, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the stranger. "Hi,"

 

"Hi…" The stranger replied, trying not to laugh as Kurt hid his face in Santana's arm.

 

"My friend here thinks you're cute but he's too shy to say so," The girl said to him.

 

Blaine laughed as he heard the boy whimper and saw the blush appearing on his face.

 

"Kurt Hummel, don't you dare go shy now," The girl said as Blaine's smile fell and his heart dropped to his stomach. Did she just…

 

"Wait…Kurt Hummel?" Blaine found himself saying.

 

The boy turned his head to look at him, still leaning his face against the girls arm.

 

"Yeah…" He said confusedly.

 

"Did you live in an orphanage when you were younger?"

 

"Yeah…" He said again, his eyebrows scrunching up.

 

The girl was watching the two of them with raised eyebrows, he actually wondered if she was more confused than he was.

 

"I…" Blaine swallowed around the lump in his throat. "Did you used to carry around a stuffed sheep with you everywhere?"

 

"How do you know that?" Kurt asked, his words slurring a little.

 

"Oh my god," Blaine muttered. "I…I…Oh my god."

 

"Wait…" Kurt said, realisation hitting him. "Blaine?" He said quietly, suddenly seeming a lot more sober than he was two seconds ago.

 

Blaine couldn't do anything but nod, his eyes slightly wide as he tried to come to terms with what was happening in that moment.

 

Kurt groaned, his eyes falling shut. "I feel dizzy."

 

"Woah, okay, sit down," The girl said, leading him over to a chair and helping him into it. "How much did you drink while I was in the bathroom?"

 

Blaine wasn't sure why but he followed the two of them over to where she sat Kurt down, both still in shock from the fact that Kurt was there and also wanting to make sure he was okay.

 

"I'll go get him some water," Blaine said, finally coming to his senses.

 

"I'll go," The girl said. "You two obviously have a lot to talk about."

 

Kurt felt dizzy. He knew it had nothing to do with the alcohol, though. He hadn't even drunk that much. He couldn't believe he was sitting opposite Blaine…the same Blaine that had been like a big brother to him when he was little…the same Blaine that'd he'd called cute a few minutes ago, hypothetically.

 

"Oh god," Kurt groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

 

"You okay?" Blaine asked.

 

"I just called you cute…kind of,"

 

"Oh, am I not cute now that you know who I am?" Blaine teased, smirking at Kurt when he looked up at him.

 

Kurt groaned again. "This is so weird."

 

"Yeah that…that pretty much summarises things," Blaine laughed.

 

Santana came back over a few minutes later with a bottle of water which she handed to her best friend before crouching down and placing a kiss to his cheek.

 

"I'll be over there if you need me, okay?" She said to Kurt, who nodded in reply. "I'm Santana by the way," She said to Blaine, standing up.

 

"Blaine," He smiled. Santana made her way back over to where she originally was and Blaine watched her leave before turning back to Kurt. "So…you're, what, nineteen now?"

 

"Tomorrow," Kurt said. "Nineteen…I'm nineteen tomorrow."

 

"You've grown up so much," Blaine commented. "Obviously. Although you still look kinda the same, if I'd have known any better I probably would've recognised you."

 

"I can't believe I didn't recognise you," Kurt replied. "You look exactly the same, just…older, no offence."

 

"And cuter?" Blaine teased.

 

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?" Kurt laughed.

 

"Nope," Blaine replied, laughing.

 

"Stop laughing at me," Kurt groaned, although there was still a smile on his face. "You haven't changed much. If I called you cute when we were little you probably just would've laughed, kissed me on the nose and told me I was cuter."

 

"You really remember me that much?" Blaine asked. "I mean, you were only three. I barely remember anything from when I was three."

 

"Yes, but you're much older," Kurt teased. "I couldn't forget you. You were my best friend…and you saved my life, which sort of makes you unforgettable."

 

"Ah, the great fire," Blaine laughed, becoming a little emotional.

 

"Yup…" Kurt said, realising that there were tears in Blaine's eyes. "You okay?"

 

"Yeah," Blaine said, blinking his tears away and taking a deep, shaky breath. "I just…that night," He laughed, shaking his head. "I was a mess after that. It kind of scarred me…physically and emotionally."

 

"Physically?" Kurt said confusedly.

 

"You can't see it?" Blaine asked. Kurt studied him for a few moments, his eyebrows scrunched together before he saw it.

 

Right under Blaine's eye was a scratch mark, well it looked like a scratch mark but Kurt knew better than to think it was a scratch.

 

Before he even realised what he was doing, Kurt was reaching across the table and cupping Blaine's cheek, gently brushing his thumb over the mark.

 

"You got this from saving me," Kurt stated. "I remember…seeing it when you were in the ambulance."

 

"You really do have a good memory," Blaine laughed as Kurt pulled away.

 

"I wanna talk to you…properly, I mean," Kurt said. "I'm still a little bit drunk right now and after this I kind of just wanna get even drunker and then spend my whole birthday eating junk food and watching movies with my best friend."

 

"Don't you know it's illegal for you to drink?" Blaine teased.

 

"Shut up," Kurt laughed. "No but seriously, give me your number so that we can arrange to talk another time," He said, giving his phone to Blaine. "Thank you." He smiled when Blaine gave him his phone back, his number listed in his contacts.

 

He sent Blaine a quick text so that he could save his number in his own phone before they said their goodbyes and made their way back to their respective best friends.

 

Blaine wasn't sure why, but after Kurt confessing that he was planning on getting drunk, he felt responsible for looking out for him…you know, just in case. He got some water before making his way back to Wes and explaining everything that had just happened.

 

"Wow…" Wes said, watching Kurt dance and laugh with Santana. "He really isn't a baby anymore."

 

"No kidding," Blaine laughed, looking over at the two friends. "I just…out of all of the people that could've been 'checking me out' or whatever the hell you said, it was him."

 

Kurt was a little bit drunk. Okay he was more than a little bit drunk but that didn't matter. He couldn't find Santana anywhere – he'd looked around the whole club, the boys bathroom (although he wasn't one hundred percent sure why she'd even be in there) and even the girls bathroom, which didn't go down well with the girls that were in there.

 

He stumbled over to Blaine and…Blaine and…whoever he was looked familiar, but Kurt couldn't work out who it was, and tapped on Blaine's shoulder.

 

"I'm a lot drunk," Kurt said when Blaine turned around. "Wait…"

 

"I can see that," Blaine laughed.

 

"Santana ditched me," He said next, his words slurring. "I can't find her."

 

"Okay, I'm taking you home," Blaine said, saying goodbye to whoever he was talking to before putting an arm around Kurt's waist and leading him outside to his car.

 

Kurt giggled when Blaine sat him in the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt for him, leaning his head against the chair and waiting for Blaine to get into his own seat.

 

"Blaine," Kurt said once they began driving.

 

"Yes?" Blaine replied, trying not to laugh at how adorable Kurt was when he was drunk.

 

"You're pretty,"

 

"Thank you," He laughed.

 

"I missed you," Kurt slurred. "I thought…I thought that you were gonna come for me…but you never did."

 

"Kurt…" Blaine said, unsure of where he wanted his sentence to go. "Uh…where do you live?"

 

"Um…I live…I live…with Santana?" Kurt said, trying to remember where he lived.

 

"That really doesn't help," Blaine sighed. "Okay, I'm taking you to mine."

 

When they arrived at Blaine's apartment, Kurt was a giggling mess.

 

"You…you have an ap…ap…apartment!" Kurt exclaimed, laughing as if it were the funniest joke ever.

 

"Mhm," Blaine mumbled, laughing at little bit.

 

"I have an apartment…Santana lives in my apartment…" Kurt said.

 

"I know," Blaine laughed.

 

"You smell good," Kurt commented, burying his face in Blaine's neck.

 

"Yeah well you stink," Blaine laughed.

 

"Because I…be- because I'm drunk," Kurt giggled.

 

"Because you're drunk," Blaine confirmed with a laugh, helping Kurt sit down on the sofa. "I'll be back in a second." He said, leaving the room.

 

Kurt rested his head against the back of the sofa, shutting his eyes before opening them again, confused.

 

"Blaine?" Kurt said. "Blay…Blaine…where'd you go?" He slurred, looking up when he heard laughter coming from somewhere in the room.

 

Blaine re-entered the living room, placing a few cushions against the arm of the sofa and instructing Kurt to lay down before covering him with a blanket.

 

"Blaine…" Kurt mumbled, his eyes slipping shut.

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Can you stay with me…till…till I fall 'sleep?"

 

"Okay," Blaine whispered, knowing it wouldn't take him that long to fall asleep. He sat down on the edge of his coffee table and carded his fingers through Kurt's hair, unable to stop himself.

 

"You used to sing to me," Kurt said.

 

"I used to read to you," Blaine corrected.

 

"Nuh-uh," Kurt giggled. "When you…finished the book you sung to me if I was still 'wake."

 

Blaine was silent, unsure of what to say. His heart was beating rapidly as he continued to comb Kurt's hair back with his fingers.

 

"Blaine?"

 

"Yeah?" Blaine replied, his voice breaking a little.

 

"Will you…will you sing to me?"

 

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Blaine began to quietly sing the same lullaby that he'd sing to Kurt under his breath when he was little until the eighteen year old fell asleep.

 

Blaine awoke to the sound of someone throwing up in his apartment. He climbed out of bed and made his way to the bathroom where he found Kurt with his head over the toilet.

 

"Happy Birthday," Blaine said sleepily.

 

"Screw you," Kurt replied before throwing up for the umpteenth time.

 

Blaine sighed, kneeling on the floor next to Kurt and rubbing his back gently. "Are you okay?"

 

Kurt groaned, grabbing some tissue and wiping his mouth before replying. "I knew I shouldn't have listened to Santana. I should never listen to Santana."

 

Blaine laughed, pressing a kiss to the top of Kurt's head before standing up and making his way out of the bathroom. "I'll go make you some breakfast."

 

"Food sounds like the worst idea ever right now," Kurt whined. "Next to alcohol."

 

"I know, but you need to eat unfortunately." Blaine laughed, making his way to the kitchen.

 

Kurt entered the kitchen a few moments later and sat down at the table, leaning his head in his hands.

 

"Here," Blaine said, placing a glass of water and headache tablets in front of the nineteen year old.

 

"Thank you," Kurt replied, taking the medicine and drinking the rest of the water.

 

"And here," He said next, placing a plate of waffles in front of Kurt, who pouted up at him. "Eat." Blaine laughed, sitting opposite Kurt and eating his own breakfast.

 

"I'm sorry," Kurt said, taking his first bite of food.

 

"For what?"

 

"For getting drunk and basically like, loading myself on you and now I'm being childish."

 

"Okay firstly, I would've done the same for anyone. I have an overwhelming need to protect people so I'd rather have you sleeping on my sofa than you be lost somewhere, especially on your birthday," He teased, eliciting a small smile from Kurt. "And secondly, you're not being childish."

 

Kurt sighed, eating the rest of his breakfast in silence.

 

"How long would I get in jail if I murdered someone?" Kurt asked as Blaine collected their plates.

 

"Um…should I be worried?" Blaine replied, putting the plates in the sink and wiping his hands on a towel.

 

"Not if you're okay with me killing my best friend," Kurt said.

 

"Well I'd rather you didn't end up in prison for first degree murder," Blaine laughed. "Although I'd still come and visit you."

 

"Sigh," Kurt said dramatically. "I guess I'll have to live with her then."

 

"You're so dramatic," Blaine commented, but he was still laughing a little.

 

"That's probably why I go to NYADA," Kurt laughed, not realising that he'd seen Blaine for the first time in fifteen years the day before. "That, um, that stands for…"

 

"I know what it stands for," Blaine smiled.

 

"This isn't weird," Kurt said, his face scrunching up in confusion. "Why isn't this weird?"

 

"I honestly don't know. You're just so easy to talk to…"

 

"So are you," Kurt shrugged. "It doesn't feel like I haven't seen you in fifteen years, even though we've both grown up like, a lot."

 

"I know. Since we first saw each other yesterday I sort of have to keep reminding myself that you're the same three year old that I used to spend my time with, even though I know that."

 

"I wanna show you something," Kurt said out of the blue. "As long as you have no plans and are willing to come to my apartment?"

 

"Sure," Blaine smiled. "Uh, do you want something to change into or would you rather wait until we get back to yours?"

 

"Do you mind?" Kurt asked, biting his lip. "I feel kinda gross in these clothes."

 

"I'll go and find you something…It might be a tiny bit small for you though, you're really tall considering how small you were when you were little." Blaine replied with a laugh.

 

"At least you're not too drunk to tell me where you live today," Blaine laughed as he pulled up in front of Kurt's apartment.

 

"You suck," Kurt groaned.

 

"Come on," Blaine said with a smile, getting out of the car, Kurt following him.

 

As soon as Kurt entered the apartment Santana was shouting at him, asking where he'd been and why he didn't call her. Kurt ignored her, however, in favour of grabbing Blaine's hand and leading him into his bedroom.

 

"That girl, I swear," Kurt groaned. "I love her but I hate her so much sometimes."

 

"I'm guessing you're mad at her?" Blaine said with a smirk.

 

"How'd you guess?" Kurt deadpanned.

 

"Hey, I was just kidding." Blaine said, his smile dropping.

 

"I know, I know," Kurt groaned, running his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry."

 

"Kurt," Blaine sighed. Before he realised what he was doing, his arms were wrapping themselves around Kurt's shoulders in a hug. Kurt sighed in turn, melting into Blaine's arms a little, wrapping his own arms around Blaine's waist and burying his face in his shoulder.

 

They stayed like that for a while, Blaine rubbing soothing circles over Kurt's back and resting his chin gently on the nineteen year olds head.

 

"Thank you," Kurt smiled as they pulled away from one another. "You have no idea how much I needed that."

 

"You're welcome. Now, I believe you wanted to show me something?"

 

"Mhm," Kurt hummed. "Sit," He said, pointing to his bed before making his way over to his wardrobe and pulling a box out of the bottom. Kurt made his way back to the bed, sat opposite Blaine and placed the box in-between them. Blaine raised his eyebrows at Kurt, confused. "Open it."

 

Slowly, Blaine removed the lid on the box, gasping at what was inside. "Kurt…" He whispered. The box was full of things that Kurt had from when he was little. His sheep, his Peter Pan book that was slightly wrecked as it barely survived the fire, his dummy, he even had… "Peter Pan and Tinkerbell," Blaine laughed. "How do you even have these still? I thought for sure they would've gotten lost after the fire, or they wouldn't have even survived the fire."

 

"They were never in the fire," Kurt explained. "I never put them back in my room after you gave them to me, I kept them in my pocket all day. I ended up forgetting they were there and I fell asleep with them in my pocket still, then when I was in the car with Elaine on the way to my new home I felt something sharp digging into my butt," He said, laughing. "I reached into my pocket and it was those."

 

Blaine smiled, imagining a four year old Kurt in that situation. He looked back in the box, his eyebrows furrowing together when he saw a pile of photos banded together with an elastic band. He instantly recognised the one on the top of the pile from their trip to the beach…he didn't even know there were any photos from that day.

 

"Since when do these photos even exist?" Blaine asked, going through the photos and smiling at the ones of him playing with Kurt on the beach.

 

"Elaine was taking pictures of us on her phone," Kurt replied. "She gave me a whole bunch of photos when I was like fifteen. There are some from when I was with you and uh, some from when I went to the other home."

 

Blaine couldn't help but smile at the photos. There were so many. There were some of Blaine and Kurt, some of Kurt by himself, there was even one of Blaine by himself that he obviously didn't know was being taken.

 

"Kurt," Santana said, opening Kurt's door without knocking. She did that a lot. "Can we talk, please?"

 

Kurt looked from Santana, to Blaine, back to Santana and then back to Blaine one more time before speaking. "I'll be back in a minute," He sighed, getting up and following Santana out of the room.

 

"I'm mad at you." He said to Santana once they were outside his bedroom.

 

"You're mad at me?" Santana said incredulously.

 

"You ditched me!" Kurt exclaimed. "You took me out, for my birthday may I add, and then you left me there by myself with no way of getting home!"

 

"I came home! I told you that I was coming home!"

 

"No you didn't! One minute you were there and then I couldn't find you and believe me, I looked everywhere."

 

"Oh…well, I meant to tell you," Santana said guiltily. "What about you anyway?"

 

"What about me?"

 

"You didn't come home last night! I had no idea where you were!"

 

"Maybe if you told me you were leaving you would've known where I was!"

 

"Where were you?" Santana asked, completely ignoring what Kurt said.

 

"I was at Blaine's. He cares about me more than you do and it's been a freaking day!"

 

"You could've texted me! I know you thought that I 'ditched you' or whatever but you're still my best friend and I was worried sick about you!"

 

"I'm sorry, okay!?" Kurt screamed. "I'm sorry I ever agreed to your stupid plan! I'm sorry that I didn't tell you I wasn't coming home! I'm sorry you got stuck living with me! I'm sorry, okay!?"

 

"Kurt –" Santana began, cut off by Kurt running into the bathroom crying. "Kurt!" Santana said, knocking on the bathroom door. "Kurt, please," Santana said. "Open the door."

 

"Go away!" Kurt cried.

 

Santana groaned, leaning against the bathroom door.

 

Blaine heard the whole argument. The entire neighbourhood probably heard the argument, the two of them were practically screaming at each other. He wanted to go and make sure they were okay, that Kurt was okay, but he felt as if it wasn't his place to interfere.

 

When he heard Kurt slam the bathroom door shut though, he couldn't stop himself from leaving the bedroom.

 

"Uh, are you guys okay?" Blaine asked Santana.

 

"He hates me," Santana said simply, closing her eyes frustratedly.

 

"He doesn't hate you," Blaine said, walking closer to the other nineteen year old. "He told me himself that he doesn't hate you. Well, his exact words were 'I love her but I hate her so much sometimes' but you could tell he doesn't really hate you."

 

"He should hate me," Santana replied. "I would hate me if I was my roommate."

 

"Okay…let me talk to him?" Blaine suggested. "I don't know if it will help but…"

 

Santana nodded, pushing herself off the door.

 

"Can you just…tell him I'll be in my room if he wants to talk, please?"

 

"Yeah," Blaine smiled, waiting until the nineteen year old was in her room before knocking on the door softly. "Kurt? It's Blaine…can I come in?"

 

There were a few moments of silence before Kurt unlocked the door and let Blaine in. Once Blaine was inside Kurt went and sat on the floor, curling himself into a ball. Blaine figured that was the position he was in before he'd knocked on the door.

 

"Are you okay?" He asked, sitting on the floor and rubbing Kurt's back gently.

 

Kurt shook his head from where it was buried in his arms, lifting his head a few moments later to wipe at his eyes. "I hate everything," Kurt sobbed, burying his head in his arms again and crying even harder.

 

Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt the best he could and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "Define 'everything.'"

 

"I mean everything," Kurt cried. "I hate me, I hate my life, I hate Santana, I hate this apartment, I hate college, I hate my job, I hate everything!"

 

"No you don't," Blaine said. "You're just upset."

 

"Blaine," Kurt sobbed, looking up at Blaine, his entire face wet with tears.

 

Blaine pulled Kurt against his chest immediately, carding his fingers through his soft hair and trying to comfort him the best he possibly could. "Shh," The twenty nine year old whispered into the top of Kurt's head. "You're gonna make yourself sick, sweetie," He said, the term of endearment slipping out without him realising.

 

It took a while, but Kurt finally started to calm down.

 

"I'm sorry," Kurt laughed, wiping his eyes. "I'm a complete mess…I…we only saw each other yesterday for crying out loud."

 

"It's okay, Kurt," Blaine assured him.

 

"Thank you. I know it sounds ridiculous but I don't know what I'd do without you."

 

Blaine just hugged him close, trying to keep his heartbeat under control.

 

"Are you okay now?" Blaine asked.

 

"No," Kurt laughed.

 

Blaine sighed, changing the subject. "Santana wants to talk to you."

 

Kurt laughed, sniffing a little. "She said that last time and we ended up having a screaming match."

 

"I honestly think she just wants to talk to you, she feels bad."

 

"I don't want to talk to her," Kurt sniffed. "I don't care if I'm being childish or immature I just..."

 

"It's okay," Blaine replied.

 

"Can we go back to my bedroom please?"

 

"Yeah," Blaine said, standing up and holding his hand out for Kurt.

 

He led the nineteen year old back to his bedroom and placed the abandoned box and its contents on the floor. Once the bed was clear, Kurt crawled under the covers and snuggled into the pillows.

 

"Do you want me to go?" Blaine asked, Kurt shaking his head in reply.

 

"Can you just...lay with me, please?"

 

"Yeah...yeah..." Blaine replied, kicking off his shoes and climbing under the covers next to Kurt.

 

Blaine couldn't help but reach out to gently caress Kurt's cheek. He smiled as the nineteen year olds eyes fluttered shut, bringing his hand up to card his fingers through his hair.

 

Kurt was asleep within a matter of minutes, but Blaine didn't stop running his fingers through his hair or the gentle movement of his thumb over Kurt's cheek, the younger boy snuggling closer to him.

 

Blaine's breath caught in his throat when Kurt gripped onto his shirt with his hand and snuggled into his arms, his heart pounding against his chest as he wrapped his arms around him and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

 

When Kurt woke up, he felt a lot better. His head was pillowed on Blaine's chest and he's managed to snake an arm around the older man's waist in his sleep.

 

He looked up to see that Blaine had fallen asleep. Kurt smiled, Blaine looked so young and adorable in that moment. His curly hair was a mess, and he looked so peaceful. There was a small smile pulling at his lips despite him being asleep and his whole face was relaxed. He looked cute, admittedly, and he looked so...so...kissa-

 

Kurt took a deep breath, laying his head back down before his thoughts could get any worse. Blaine was like his big brother. Well, he used to be like his big brother but still. It was only day two, they were hardly even friends yet.

 

But Blaine was asleep...it wouldn't hurt, right? Just to see what it felt like. Surely just a tiny kiss while he was asleep would be okay...

 

Kurt looked back up at Blaine, seriously considering whether he should kiss him or not. Screw it, he thought. He slowly scooted up the bed, making sure he didn't wake Blaine up, staring down at the older man for a few moments.

 

Taking a deep breath before he chickened out, Kurt leaned down and pressed his lips to Blaine's, his heart beating wildly in his chest.

 

Wow, okay, kissing felt nice. Kissing felt really nice because...oh god, Blaine was kissing him back.

 

Kurt jumped back a little. "I thought you were asleep." He breathed.

 

"I was," Blaine replied.

 

"I, uh...I'm sorry I...I shouldn't have..."

 

"Shut up," Blaine said and oh, he was coming closer.

 

"We...we shouldn't,"

 

"I know," Blaine replied and no more was said as the twenty nine year old pressed their mouths together, cupping Kurt's cheek as their lips slotted perfectly together.

 

"I have to go meet Wes," Blaine breathed as Kurt placed yet another hickey on his neck.

 

"Do you have to?" Kurt groaned, not moving his head from Blaine's neck.

 

"Yes," He replied. "Kurt, we need to stop."

 

"Don't wanna," Kurt mumbled, pressing his lips back to Blaine's neck.

 

"Kurt...Kurt...seriously, we – stop – we've been at this for two hours."

 

Kurt sat up, whining a little because ugh, Blaine looked wrecked and he wanted nothing more than to just spend the day in bed, making out with Blaine.

 

"Your hair is a mess," Blaine laughed. "You look adorable."

 

Kurt sighed, leaning forward to brush Blaine's curls off of his face. He couldn't stop himself when he leaned down to press a chaste kiss to his lips.

 

"Kurt," Blaine mumbled against his lips.

 

"I know," Kurt replied, smiling a little as he pulled back. "Call me later?"

 

"Promise," Blaine smiled, pressing one more kiss to Kurt's lips before pulling his shoes on.

 

Kurt walked Blaine to the door, their hands intertwined. Once Blaine was gone, Kurt turned around, only then realising that Santana was sitting on the sofa through all of that.

 

"So are you two dating or?"

 

"Is that a hickey?" Wes asked when he allowed Blaine to enter his apartment.

 

"You don't miss anything, do you?"

 

"But you haven't been with anyone except Kurt, unless...oh god, Blaine."

 

"I know," Blaine groaned. "I just...he isn't the same little Kurt anymore, Wes. He...he's hot."

 

"Oh God, okay, that disturbed me more than you'd think."

 

"Not helping!"

 

"Just...how...you know, far...did you go?"

 

"Wes!" Blaine exclaimed.

 

"I'm serious,"

 

"We only kissed,"

 

"Yeah and sucked huge bruises onto each other's necks," Wes commented, inspecting how many hickies were on his friend's neck. "There are dozens here, oh my god. I can't even imagine what Kurt's neck must look like…"

 

"Wes!"

 

"Sorry," He muttered.

 

"I like him, Wes," Blaine said guiltily. "I don't know why or how but I really like him."

 

"It's only been two days," Wes pointed out.

 

"I know. I can't explain it, I just…you know that fluttery feeling you get in your chest every time you're around someone that you have feelings for? I've been feeling that ever since last night whenever I look at him. I mean, I didn't at first but as soon as we started talking, I just…" Blaine sighed. "It felt right kissing him."

 

"He's nineteen,"

 

"I know," Blaine groaned. "I feel like I shouldn't feel this way about him but I can't help it, it feels wrong but it feels so right at the same time."

 

"What are you going to do?"

 

"I don't know," Blaine sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I'll figure it out later. For now, though, I need you to help me find a present for Kurt."

 

"How the hell am I supposed to help you? You're the one who's had your face attached to his all afternoon, I'm sure you know him a lot better than I do."

 

"Wes," Blaine whined. "Please?"

 

"Fine," Wes groaned. "But you so owe me for this."

 

"Thank you!" Blaine said happily, enveloping his best friend in a hug.

 

"So let me get this straight," Santana began. "You and this Blaine guy were both in an orphanage when you were younger and you're ten years his junior so he used to look after you, but the place set on fire and he ran in there to save you but you got taken to a new home hours later while Blaine was like hyperventilating in the back of an ambulance or something,"

 

"Tana," Kurt sighed.

 

"Sorry. Anyway, so you got taken to a new home and you thought you were never gonna see him again but, plot twist,you do see him again. So you bumped into him yesterday while we were out for your birthday and you talked a little bit about when you were younger like, reminisced or whatever, and then you couldn't find me and you were too drunk to tell him where you lived so he took you back to his place and sung you to sleep – can I just point out how cliché that is? – then this morning he made you waffles and then brought you back here so you could show him a box of stuff or something. You then proceed to have an excessively loud argument with me where you end up bawling your eyes out and he comforts you and takes you back to your bedroom. You kiss him, thinking that he's asleep but, oh look, another plot twist, he's actually awake and he kisses you back. So you spend two hours making out and here we are…"

 

"Pretty much," Kurt replied, pulling his knees to his chest as he sat sideways on the sofa to face Santana and leaned against the back of the sofa.

 

"And you wonder why I'd rather get drunk and make out with girls without regretting it the next morning," Santana said, rolling her eyes. "Though I do have to say, Hummel, congrats on getting an older guy and everything."

 

"Santana!"

 

"What?"

 

"Shut up," Kurt laughed.

 

"Okay, so, you like this guy right?"

 

"Yeah…"

 

"So ask him out!"

 

"I can't!" Kurt groaned. "He was like my big brother when I was little and he still seems protective of me now. I don't even know how he feels about the whole 'two hour make out' thing because it just sort of…happened…and we didn't get a chance to talk about it."

 

"If he didn't want to kiss you he wouldn't have kissed you," Santana pointed out. "He would've pushed you away."

 

"What if he just didn't want to hurt my feelings?" Kurt asked.

 

"Then he wouldn't have kissed you. I'm pretty sure your feelings would be more hurt if he acted as if he was into it and then just ditched you, or whatever."

 

"I guess," Kurt sighed. "I'll talk to him later. He promised he'd call me so…"

 

"Okay, now that conversation is over I can finally give you my gift," Santana said, getting up from the sofa. "Wait here."

 

Kurt waited patiently on the sofa while Santana ran into her bedroom, running back out with a little box.

 

"Uh, I know that you love me and everything, Tana, but it's a little too soon to propose, don't you think?" Kurt teased.

 

"Shut up and open it, you idiot." Santana said, although there was a smile on her face as she handed Kurt his gift.

 

Kurt took the box into his hands and peeled the paper off before opening the box. Inside was a small necklace with a tiny silver heart hanging from it, well, half of a tiny silver heart hanging from it.

 

"This is probably the cheesiest thing I've ever done but you're my best friend so I guess I'll make an exception," Santana smiled, pulling out her own necklace from inside her shirt, revealing the second half of the heart. "I know that I'm not always the greatest friend – today and yesterday being a prime example of that – but I honestly do love you and you're the most amazing friend I've ever had."

 

"Aw, Santana has a heart," Kurt teased, a huge smile on his face.

 

"Hummel," Santana warned, although there was no real threat behind it.

 

"I'm kidding. I love it, Santana, thank you," Kurt smiled, hugging the girl sitting opposite him. "And just for the record, you're my best friend too, no matter how much I hate you and want to murder you sometimes."

 

"Okay, stop being soppy now," Santana laughed. "I believe I promised you a birthday movie night."

 

"This is hopeless!" Blaine cried. They'd been in at least seven different shops and Blaine couldn't find anything he thought Kurt would even remotely like.

 

"Blaine…" Wes said, noticing something in a shop window.

 

"What?" Blaine groaned. Wes nodded towards the shop window as Blaine confusedly turned around to face it. "Oh my god, Wes…it's perfect."

 

"I may be a lesbian, but I still know when a guy is hot or not," Santana said, shoving another handful of popcorn in her mouth. "There is absolutely no way Jacob is hotter than Edward."

 

"Yes, but you're forgetting that I'm a gay guy and I'm actually attracted to men, unlike you, and I'm telling you that Edward doesn't even come close to Jacob."

 

"You have got to be –" Santana was cut off by a knock on the door.

 

"Ugh," Kurt groaned around a mouthful of popcorn. "I am not moving from this seat."

 

"I guess I'll be getting it then," Santana replied, rolling her eyes before shoving more popcorn in her mouth and wrapping her duvet around her, shuffling towards the front door. "Itsh Byayn!" She shouted to Kurt, popcorn falling out of her mouth.

 

"Uh…Hi?" Blaine said confusedly. "Did I interrupt something?"

 

"We' wachin' a moffie," Santana mumbled around her popcorn. "Kuh!" She shouted, more popcorn spitting out of her mouth. "Ew…"

 

Blaine heard shuffling and suddenly Kurt was shuffling towards the open door, cocooned in another duvet.

 

Kurt tried to speak but he was still eating popcorn so he held his hand up to Blaine, asking him to wait for a minute before he managed to swallow the popcorn. "Hi."

 

"Hi," Blaine laughed. Kurt looked adorable, honestly. His hair was sticking up randomly, he was dressed in pyjamas and he had a duvet double his size wrapped around him. "Uh, can I steal you for a little while?"

 

"But there's shirtless Taylor Lautner on my TV screen," Kurt pouted teasingly, ignoring Santana's shout of 'TEAM EDWARD' from where she was back in front of the TV.

 

"Please?" Blaine asked.

 

"Give me a second," Kurt replied, shuffling back to the sofa before unwrapping himself from the duvet and putting it back on the sofa. Blaine tried to muffle a laugh when he saw Kurt trip over the cover and almost fall flat on his face, but apparently he wasn't very quiet as Kurt shouted 'I heard that!' before continuing with what he was doing.

 

Soon enough, Kurt was stepping outside the apartment and closing the door quietly behind him. He was still dressed in his pyjamas, but he actually had shoes on.

 

"Where are you taking me?" Kurt asked curiously as he got into Blaine's car, trying to figure out where they were going when Blaine started driving. "There better not be people there because I look a mess right now and –"

 

"Relax," Blaine laughed. "There won't be people there. Just…are you okay with heights?"

 

"Um…yeah, but -"

 

"If you're gonna ask me why, I'm not telling you," Blaine said with a smile. "It's a surprise."

 

"You're mean." Kurt pouted.

 

"Thank you,"

 

"A warehouse…you took me to a warehouse."

 

"Just shut up and come with me," Blaine laughed, getting out of the car. Kurt was confused when Blaine reached into the back seat and pulled a bag out, but the twenty nine year old quickly explained. "Your present."

 

"Blaine," Kurt said, shocked. "You didn't have to buy me anything."

 

"I wanted to," Blaine smiled. "Now, come on."

 

Blaine led Kurt inside the warehouse and towards a set of stairs. Blaine went up first, Kurt following confusedly behind until his head suddenly popped outside a window.

 

"Holy crap," Kurt said. "We're on a roof…why are we on a roof? Are you trying to kill me?"

 

"Calm down," Blaine said, smiling at Kurt's cuteness. "Just come up here." Blaine said, sitting on the roof.

 

The roof was flat, but it was slightly slanted and Kurt was terrified that he would go flying down it if he climbed onto it.

 

"I know I said I was okay with heights but I wasn't expecting this, Blaine…I – I can't." Kurt said, shaking his head.

 

"You can," Blaine said, "Here, take my hands," He said, standing up and moving to the window, holding his hands out for Kurt. "I promise I won't let you fall."

 

Slowly, Kurt placed his hands in Blaine's and allowed himself to be led outside onto the roof, trying to do anything but look down.

 

"I'm never gonna make it to twenty," Kurt muttered, slowly walking along the roof, never letting go of Blaine's hands.

 

"Stop being such a drama queen." Blaine laughed, walking backwards as he led Kurt slowly towards where he was previously sitting.

 

Kurt screamed when his trainer slipped the slightest bit, clinging to Blaine like his life depended on it because honestly, he believed that his life did depend on it. "Blaine!" He screamed, tears appearing in his eyes.

 

"It's okay, I've got you," Blaine said, gripping Kurt a little tighter. "I'm not gonna let you fall."

 

Finally, finally, they were back at the place where Blaine placed the bag. They both sat down, Kurt finally feeling like he could breathe again.

 

"Are you okay?"

 

"Yeah," Kurt breathed. "I think I might hate you though."

 

"You think?" Blaine laughed.

 

"Shut up. I almost just died, I don't know what I'm thinking."

 

"Okay," Blaine laughed. "Uh, yeah so I got you a present but I kind of wanted to talk to you first, just in case you hate me afterwards."

 

"Okay…"

 

"So uh, earlier…oh god this sounds awful. It wasn't that I didn't like kissing you because trust me, I did. I really liked it, actually," He said, blushing a little. "Anyway. I think that it's pretty obvious that we both like each other but I…I think that we should try being just friends, for now at least. I mean, it's only day two and we hardly know each other. Well, I know you like the back of my hand, but your three year old self, not this nineteen year old version of yourself and I want to get to know you better before we jump into something, because honestly all I know about you right now is that you study at NYADA and judging by what I saw when I came to pick you up, you have a thing for Taylor Lautner. You also have a manic best friend…sort of. So uh, yeah…"

 

"Okay," Kurt said, smiling.

 

"Okay?" Blaine repeated, raising his eyebrows.

 

"Okay," Kurt laughed. "I get what you mean. I don't know the first thing about you, really. I know that you're really good looking – sorry, that's probably not helping with the just friend's thing – but I don't know anything about you."

 

"Oh thank god," Blaine sighed. "I thought you were gonna hate me."

 

"Why would I hate you?"

 

"I don't know, I just kind of thought that I screwed everything up."

 

"You didn't." Kurt smiled.

 

"Good. Now, present time," He laughed, passing Kurt a box shaped present.

 

"I still can't believe you bought me a present." Kurt said, taking the present from Blaine.

 

"Like I said, I wanted to. Now open it!"

 

"Pushy," Kurt giggled. He began tearing off the paper, confused as to what was inside until it was completely unwrapped. "Blaine…" Kurt whispered.

 

It was a rectangular canvas with a light blue background, Peter Pan painted in the corner and cursive writing that had a quote from the book across it. The painting looked…magical. That was the only word that could describe it.

 

"I thought the quote kind of fitted us," Blaine said. "Plus it's Peter Pan, and I know you loved it when you were little."

 

"I love it," Kurt replied. "The painting I mean. Thank you." He said, laughing a little and looking up at Blaine with tears in his eyes.

 

"You're welcome."

 

"It's kind of ironic actually."

 

"What?"

 

"The quote," Kurt said, tracing the letters with his finger. "'Never say goodbye, because saying goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.' I don't know why, but that was my favourite line from the book when I was little. That was why I never said goodbye to you when I left," He said, looking up at Blaine with a lone tear trailing down his cheek. "Elaine told me she was gonna come and wake you up so that I could say goodbye to you and I remember saying, and I quote, 'No! I can't say goodbye to Blaine because Peter Pan said that if you say goodbye then you will forget, and I don't want to forget Blaine!' and then I started crying…kind of like I am right now." He said, laughing and wiping his eyes.

 

"I always wondered why I never got to say goodbye to you…I remember I felt like complete crap but I was terrified to go to sleep in case you left but Elaine promised me that you wouldn't leave without saying goodbye but when I woke up I was told that you'd already left…I hated that that last time you got to see me I could hardly remember my own name. It makes sense now, though…and I guess it worked."

 

"What worked?" Kurt asked, trying to stop himself from crying.

 

"You not saying goodbye. I never forgot…not once."

 

"Me neither." Kurt whispered brokenly, more tears leaving his eyes.

 

"I know that grin," Santana said as Kurt entered the apartment, painting clutched to his chest and his head down as he smiled wildly. "Either you and Blaine did something unspeakable or he asked you out."

 

"Neither," Kurt smiled. "He said he wants to try being friends for now, and I actually sort of agree with him."

 

"What the hell are you grinning at then?"

 

Although he knew she wouldn't understand, Kurt passed the painting to Santana.

 

"You're grinning at Peter Pan?" Santana asked, her eyebrows raised.

 

"Blaine got it for me."

 

"He got you a Peter Pan painting?"

 

Moving to sit next to Santana on the sofa, Kurt began to explain the whole 'Peter Pan' thing.

 

"Blaine used to read Peter Pan to me every night when I was little, it was my favourite book. He got me these tiny figurines of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell for my fourth birthday, which I still have in my bedroom, and we watched the movie every time it was on TV."

 

"Yeah but you're not four years old anymore…"

 

"The quote," Kurt said. "He didn't just get it for me because it's Peter Pan. Read the quote."

 

"'Never say goodbye, because saying goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.' That's…that's sickening…yet really cute at the same time."

 

"It was my favourite line from the book. I mean, he didn't even know that until today but…"

 

"It still means a lot to you, yeah yeah, I get it," Santana chuckled.

 

"He means a lot to me," Kurt corrected. "He always has."

 

Kurt: How the hell do you hang canvases on the wall!?

 

Kurt was in the middle of attempting to hang that painting that Blaine had bought him above his bed but so far all he'd succeeded in doing was dropping a million nails and completely messing up his once neat bed.

 

Blaine: Oh my god.

 

Kurt: I'm serious! I have no idea what I'm doing!

 

Blaine: Do you know how to put a nail in the wall?

 

Kurt: Uh…no?

 

Blaine: Oh my god. I'm laughing at you right now, but not in a bad way, I promise.

 

Kurt: Help me :(

 

Blaine: Can you wait until tomorrow? I'll come over and hang it up for you.

 

Kurt: Thank you, you're the best!

 

Blaine: I know ;)

 

Kurt smiled, clearing his bed off and locking his phone before crawling into bed, happy at the prospect of seeing Blaine the next day.

 

"Voila!" Blaine exclaimed, jumping off of Kurt's bed and opening his arms out. "All done."

 

"Yay! Thank you!" Kurt shouted happily, hugging Blaine tightly.

 

"Okay, be honest with me…how much sugar have you had today?" Blaine asked, laughing despite his efforts not to.

 

"Uh…I'm not sure."

 

"Oh my god, you actually have had a lot of sugar…"

 

"…Santana made me!" Kurt exclaimed.

 

"No I didn't!" Santana shouted from outside Kurt's bedroom before the door opened, Santana poking her head inside. "What didn't I make you do?"

 

"Apparently you made Kurt have a lot of sugar today…hence his hyper...ness."

 

"Nuh-uh," Santana protested. "I'm not the one that fed him a huge stack of waffles covered in chocolate syrup for breakfast. I'm also not the one who continued to give him sugary snacks and drinks to snack on for the rest of the day."

 

"Kurt!" Blaine admonished, although he was laughing.

 

"It wasn't my fault." Kurt pouted.

 

"You're insane," Blaine laughed, just as there was a knock on the apartment door.

 

"I'll get it!" Kurt cheered happily, running out of his bedroom.

 

"Is this normal for him or…?"

 

"Not normal…per se, but he gets over it quite quickly. Although he gets kind of depressed afterwards."

 

"That's usually what happens with a sugar high," Blaine laughed.

 

"Santana!" Kurt called. "There's a girl at the door for you who claims that you and her –"

 

"Okay! That's enough from you!" Santana shouted, running into the living room to cover Kurt's mouth and lead him back to his bedroom before seeing who was at the door.

 

"We should go ice skating!" Kurt exclaimed excitedly. He was lying on the sofa with his head in Blaine's lap, having still not come down from his sugar high. "I've never been ice skating."

 

"You've never – wow, okay."

 

"We should go!" Kurt exclaimed as Blaine started playing with his hair. "I know that I won't fall over if I go with you. You promised you wouldn't let me fall."

 

Blaine tried to ignore Kurt's comment, although he was smiling a little at it. "It's the middle of May. I promise I'll take you ice skating near Christmas, okay?"

 

"Okay." Kurt grinned.

 

"You're adorable like this." Blaine said, unable to stop the words from coming out of his mouth.

 

"Nuh-uh," Kurt said, pointing a finger at Blaine's face. "We're just friends, remember?"

 

"I'm just saying," Blaine laughed. "Santana's your friend but if she called you adorable it wouldn't be classed as hitting on you."

 

"Santana's a lesbian."

 

"I know," Blaine laughed. "She's in the kitchen with her girlfriend right now."

 

"I can't believe she didn't tell me that she had a girlfriend," Kurt said, pouting a little. "We're best friends. We tell each other everything."

 

"Maybe she just wasn't ready to tell you." Blaine said, continuing to play with Kurt's baby soft hair.

 

"Blaine," Kurt said, running his finger along the scar on Blaine's face. "Does that hurt?"

 

"Nope," Blaine replied. "It did when I first got it, and when it left a bruise for like two months afterwards, but it's completely fine now."

 

"How did you get it?" Kurt asked. "I know it was from the fire but what actually happened?"

 

"Apparently something made of glass exploded – they found it shattered on the floor after they put the fire out – and it hit me in the face but I was kind of out of it so I didn't actually feel it hit me. That was why I made you keep your head down, if you even remember -"

 

"Of course I remember."

 

"I didn't want you to get hurt," Blaine finished. "Plus I knew if you looked up and saw the fire it would scare you."

 

"You were such a compassionate thirteen…or well, fourteen year old." Kurt smiled. "Can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer it if you don't want to though."

 

"Of course."

 

"How did you end up in care? I mean…my parents died when I was two, did the same thing happen to you?"

 

"My mum died," Blaine began. "She died when I was a baby. My dad…he kind of just broke down after that. He didn't like, neglect me or anything but he wasn't exactly the best dad. When I turned like, six or something he started drinking a lot and the older I got, the worse he got. He started to become abusive towards me but I was only little so I didn't really understand that he was doing something awful, I kind of just thought I was being punished or something. He tried to act like the 'perfect dad' whenever other people were around but he snapped one day in front of my aunt. I wouldn't eat my food or something and he threatened me and then I started crying and he hit me, right in front of her. I was only about eight. My aunt talked to me later that night – my dad thought that she was reading me a bedtime story – and she asked me why I didn't tell anyone what he was doing to me and I said that I was scared and I didn't want to stay with him anymore. She called social services and I went to stay with her for a few days but she couldn't really support a child so I ended up in care."

 

"What happened to your dad?"

 

"I have no idea. I don't really care either. I hated him and I'm not the least bit interested in trying to find him, or find out anything about him."

 

"I'm sorry." Kurt said seriously.

 

"Why?" Blaine asked, playing with Kurt's hair again.

 

"Because nobody should have to go through that."

 

"I'm okay, though," Blaine smiled. "I was fairly happy in care, considering."

 

"You still went through it though. I mean, I know my parents died but I was never abused."

 

"You're ridiculously sweet, you know?" Blaine smiled. How could he not?

 

"Stop saying things like that," Kurt groaned, although there was a smile on his face. "You make being 'just friends' the hardest thing in the world."

 

"I can't help it if you're ridiculously sweet and adorable, can I?" Blaine grinned.

 

"You're evil!" Kurt whined.

 

"Thank you," Blaine laughed, just as Santana and her girlfriend entered the living room.

 

"I find it so hard to believe you guys aren't dating sometimes," Santana said, her hand intertwined with the other girls' as they made their way over to the sofa. "Scoot over."

 

Reluctantly, Kurt sat up so that his head was no longer resting in the twenty nine year olds lap and pulled his knees up to his chest.

 

"Are you ever going to introduce us?" Kurt whispered to Santana when she sat down next to him.

 

Santana sighed. "This is Kurt, my best friend and roommate who was on a sugar high about half an hour ago so forgive him if he falls asleep on us and drools all over us, and this is Blaine, his…friend, I guess? Guys, this is my girlfriend, Dani."

 

"Hi," Dani smiled.

 

"Hi," Kurt said, smiling in reply. "And I won't fall asleep or drool over you. I'm more sophisticated than that."

 

"Says the guy who almost spat popcorn over my face yesterday," Blaine laughed, receiving a glare from Kurt. "Sorry."

 

"Blaine?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"Shut up," Kurt laughed. "So, how did you guys meet?"

 

"Ugh," Santana groaned. "This is why I didn't introduce you guys."

 

"You know that diner down the street?" Dani began.

 

"The one where the staff sing and stuff?" Kurt asked.

 

"Yeah, I work there. Tana was there one day and we ended up talking, I nearly got fired for that stunt, but yeah…that's pretty much it. I asked her out almost instantly."

 

"Aw," Blaine cooed.

 

"How did you guys meet?" Dani asked in return.

 

"Oh god, we're going to be here all day." Santana muttered.

 

"Uh…we're not dating." Kurt said.

 

"I know," Dani laughed. "I was just wondering how you met."

 

"Um…" Blaine said, biting his lip. "Well uh…for the first or the second time?"

 

"The first or second time?" Dani asked confusedly.

 

"Well, we were both in care when we were younger and this one was like my baby brother," He said, pointing to Kurt. "But he moved homes like a year or so later and we didn't see each other until like, the day before yesterday."

 

"Wow," Dani laughed.

 

"That's the short version of the story." Santana pointed out.

 

"That's really cute, actually." Dani said, smiling at the two boys.

 

Nobody noticed Kurt digging the heels of his hands into his head until a large groan came from him, causing everyone in the room to look at him.

 

"You okay?" Blaine asked.

 

"I feel sick," Kurt whined. "Why did you let me eat so many sugary things?" He asked Santana.

 

"Because you're not my child and I don't choose what you eat," Santana replied.

 

"Do you wanna go and lay down for a bit?" Blaine asked, ignoring Santana's comment. Kurt nodded, allowing Blaine to lead him into his bedroom and tuck him into bed.

 

"Can you lie with me, please?" Kurt asked, his voice muffled.

 

"Nuh-uh, no way," Blaine said. "That's what you asked yesterday and we ended up making out for two hours."

 

"Please?" Kurt asked, sounding genuinely sad. "I promise I won't kiss you again. I wouldn't attempt to kiss you right now anyway, I might vomit in your mouth if I did."

 

"Ew, Kurt," Blaine laughed.

 

"Please?" Kurt asked again.

 

"Fine," Blaine sighed, climbing into Kurt's bed and allowing him to snuggle into his arms. "But I swear, if we do anything more than cuddle I am never sharing a bed with you again."

 

"Deal." Kurt mumbled, already half asleep.

 

"She's cute," Kurt said.

 

Santana had just walked Dani out as she had to get ready for work and Blaine had left a little while beforehand.

 

"I know," Santana grinned.

 

"Since when were you willing to get a girlfriend anyway?" Kurt asked, raising his eyebrows.

 

"I wasn't. But then I met her and…I don't know."

 

"Can I just ask…why -"

 

"Didn't I tell you? I honestly didn't think about it. I know that sounds bad because I should want to brag that we're dating but I was just enjoying being with her and I didn't think about it."

 

"But the other night…when I said the only reason you wanted to go out was so that you could make out with girls without regretting it, didn't you think about telling me then?"

 

Santana shrugged.

 

"Just for the record," Kurt said next. "I'm happy for you."

 

"Thank you, Hummel," Santana smiled, enveloping her best friend in a brief hug. "And I'll be happy for you too when, you know, you and the hobbit finally start dating." She teased before running into her bedroom.

"He's not a hobbit!" Kurt shouted after her, laughing a little.


	3. Chapter 3

As promised, when winter came, Blaine planned an ice skating trip for himself and Kurt. Not much had happened in the few months that the two boys had reconnected, they just spent their time talking about old times and getting to know each other better.

 

Wes still hadn’t met, or re-met technically, Kurt since they’d been in care. Blaine hadn’t actually mentioned Wes, surprisingly, to Kurt and he didn’t think he even knew that they were still friends. How Blaine had gone seven months without mentioning his best friend, he wasn’t sure, but he now had to tell Kurt that Wes had insisted he go ice skating with them.

 

“So, um, Wes kind of wants to see you again after so long, so he’s invited himself ice skating…” Blaine announced the night of their ice skating trip as he and Kurt ate dinner in his kitchen.

 

“Who’s Wes?” Kurt asked confusedly, shoving another forkful of his dinner in his mouth.

 

“You…you don’t remember Wes?” Blaine asked, shocked.

 

Kurt just shrugged in reply, continuing to eat his food.

 

“He was like the only one of my friends that was actually nice to you when we were younger…”

 

“I still don’t know who you’re talking about.”

 

“Oh my…well, he’ll be here soon anyway.”

 

“Okay,” Kurt smiled, standing up and putting his plate in the sink.

 

The two boys made their way into Blaine’s living room after dinner and watched TV until there was a knock at the door, signalling Wes’ arrival. There was an awkward silence when Wes first arrived after being told that Kurt didn’t remember him, but Blaine broke it soon enough, letting them know that if they didn’t leave then they were going to miss their time.

 

Blaine smiled when they left and he saw Kurt bundled up in his coat, scarf and gloves, looking positively adorable.

 

When they first stepped onto the ice, Kurt screamed and gripped onto Blaine.

 

“Slippery!” Kurt shouted. “Really, really slippery!”

 

“I’ve got you,” Blaine laughed, taking Kurt’s hands.

 

“How the hell do you do this?” Kurt asked, tightening his grip on Blaine’s hands.

 

“Just move your feet a little.” Blaine instructed.

 

Kurt attempted to skate a little but slipped, screaming. He would’ve fallen over if it wasn’t for Blaine’s arms going around his waist, keeping him up.

 

“It’s not funny.” Kurt huffed as Blaine laughed at him.

 

“I’m not laughing,” Blaine said, trying to contain his laughter.

 

“Just…help me skate, okay?”

 

“You need to move your feet or you’re not going to get very far,” Blaine said, smiling at the nineteen year old. “I promise I won’t let go of you.”

 

“That doesn’t mean I won’t fall,” Kurt said with a small laugh. “On the plus side, if I fall I’ll drag you down with me.”

 

“Gee, thanks,” Blaine laughed. “Now seriously, move your feet.”

 

“Okay,” Kurt said, taking a deep breath and muttering ‘I can do this.’

 

Kurt began to skate a little, gripping onto Blaine tighter every time he sped up too much. Blaine made the skating look insanely easy as he skated backwards, holding onto Kurt’s hands. At first, Kurt looked like he was either going to throw up or pass out – Blaine wasn’t sure which one – but as soon as he started to skate a little more confidently, a smile appeared on his face and he began to have a lot more fun.

 

 

Wes observed the interaction between Kurt and Blaine as he skated around the rink, finally understanding the way they felt about each other. He realised that the age difference and their history played absolutely no part in it whatsoever; they just enjoyed themselves around each other.

 

He didn’t even realise that he was smiling slightly as he watched the two boys skating together. Seeing his best friend that happy with somebody that he knew meant a lot to him…well, he couldn’t help but smile.

 

He was confused, however, by the fact that Kurt and Blaine weren’t dating. It was more than obvious that they were crazy about each other and they were so comfortable together. They were also a really cute couple, admittedly. Or well, they would be a really cute couple if they stopped believing that they could be ‘just friends’ forever.

 

 

“Okay…I’m gonna let go of your hands but I’m right here if you need to grab onto me.” Blaine said, slowly releasing Kurt’s hands.

 

Kurt skated by himself for a few minutes – Blaine standing right in front of him, still skating backwards – before his skate slipped and he grabbed onto Blaine for support, succeeding in pulling them both down onto the ice, Kurt landing on top of Blaine.

 

Kurt was in fits of laughter immediately and Blaine couldn’t help but laugh a little at how hilarious Kurt seemed to find the situation.

 

“I can’t believe you find this so funny,” Blaine laughed. “Considering you were like, terrified of falling five minutes ago.”

 

Kurt just continued to laugh, burying his face in Blaine’s chest until he calmed down and finally looked up at his friend.

 

Slowly, Kurt moved his head from where it was buried in Blaine’s chest and looked up at the twenty nine year old, their faces inches apart.

 

“It’s cold down here,” Kurt whispered, giggling a little.

 

“Yeah,” Blaine said breathlessly. “We…we should probably get up.”

 

“Yeah…yeah.” Kurt muttered, pushing himself off of Blaine and trying to get up but slipping over quickly.

 

Blaine shot up as soon as he noticed the pained look on Kurt’s face and heard the sharp hiss come from him.

 

“Are you okay?” Blaine asked worriedly.

 

Kurt shook his head, clenching his eyes shut and trying to move his foot out from beneath him but letting out a strangled noise when he realised that it was too painful to move.

 

“We need to get you up and off the ice,” Blaine said, standing up and easing Kurt off the floor, feeling incredibly guilty when he saw a tear slip from the nineteen year olds eyes. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was supposed to get Kurt off the ice considering the boy couldn’t even move his foot, until an idea popped into his head. “Do you trust me?”

 

“What?” Kurt squeezed out, trying desperately to ignore the sharp pain in his ankle.

 

“Just…you can’t exactly skate and I don’t know how else to get you off the ice so I was going to…carry you?” Blaine said, making it sound a little like a question.

 

“You’re lucky I’m in pain because there is no way in hell I’d let you do this otherwise. But I am in pain and I just want to get off of this stupid ice so yes, I trust you.”

 

Carefully, Blaine lifted the boy up into his arms, making sure not to do anything that would cause pain for him, and skated him off of the ice. As soon as they were off of the ice, Blaine gently set Kurt down on a bench and knelt to the floor, undoing his skates and slipping them off of his feet as carefully as possible.

 

“Ew,” Blaine muttered under his breath, hoping Kurt wouldn’t hear him…but he did.

 

“What?” Kurt asked cautiously.

 

“Uh…your ankle…it just…it’s sort of, maybe, kind of swollen?”

 

Kurt glanced down at his ankle, which was already a little inflated.

 

“Ugh, yay,” Kurt deadpanned. “Remind me why we came ice skating?”

 

“I’m gonna go see if they have an ice pack that you can put on it.” Blaine said, starting to walk away but being stopped by someone grabbing his hand.

 

“Please don’t leave me.” Kurt said, looking up at Blaine with tear-filled eyes.

 

Blaine sighed a little, sitting down next to Kurt and putting his arm around the boy when he rested his head against Blaine’s shoulder.

 

“I’ll get Wes to go and get one when he finally skates back round to this side of the rink.”

 

It didn’t take long for Wes to skate back round and once he did, he immediately got off the ice and ran over to Kurt and Blaine.

 

“What happened?”

 

“We fell over and when Kurt tried to get up he slipped and fell on his ankle,” Blaine explained, whispering as he was pretty sure Kurt was asleep on his shoulder. “Which leads me onto asking if you could go and see if they have an ice pack that he can put on his ankle? I was going to get one but he doesn’t wanna be by himself and his ankle looks really bad.”

 

“Sure,” Wes said, going off to find somebody who may be able to help him.

 

Almost five minutes later, Wes came back with…a whole first aid kit.

 

“I asked you to get an ice pack, not a whole hospital!” Blaine whisper-shouted.

 

“I know and I was going to get an ice pack but then I thought that he might wanna wrap it and…this happened.” Wes explained, holding the first aid kit up.

 

“Ugh, whatever,” Blaine laughed, nudging Kurt a little to wake him up. “Hey, we got you an ice pack. Well, Wes got you an ice pack and an entire first aid kit.”

 

Kurt looked up at the two of them confusedly for a moment before sitting up and rubbing his eyes sleepily.

 

Blaine took the ice pack from Wes and wrapped it in tissue before kneeling on the floor and gently placing it on Kurt’s ankle. Kurt hissed at first, but slowly adjusted to the cold feeling.

 

Once Blaine thought that the ice pack had been applied for a suitable amount of time, he removed it and pulled Kurt’s sock off, causing the nineteen year old to look down at him with a raised eyebrow.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Wrapping your foot…” Blaine said as if it was completely obvious.

 

Kurt just laughed, allowing Blaine to get back to ‘wrapping his foot.’

 

 

“I can’t walk like this!” Kurt exclaimed.

 

He had one shoe on and one shoe off as he attempted to walk towards Blaine’s car.

 

“Hop?” Wes suggested.

 

“Very helpful,” Kurt deadpanned. “Just…can you guys help me, please?” Kurt sighed.

 

And that was how Wes and Blaine found themselves with one of Kurt’s arms over each of their shoulders as he limped towards the car, trying not to grip his friends too hard.

 

They finally made it to the car and eased Kurt into the passenger seat, making sure he didn’t bump his foot on anything and then began to make their way to Kurt’s apartment.

 

Again, they had to help Kurt limp into his apartment, causing Santana to give them strange looks. Kurt just told her that he would explain everything later and enveloped Blaine in a hug.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“For what? You can’t even walk because I took you ice skating.” Blaine pointed out, laughing a little.

 

“I still had fun,” Kurt countered. “And also thank you for helping me. I know I’m a little dramatic but you still helped me.”

 

“You’re crazy if you think I’d do any different.”

 

Kurt pulled back and smiled at Blaine, desperately wanting to kiss him. They stayed like that for a few moments until Wes awkwardly cleared his throat from beside them, causing them to pull apart awkwardly.

 

“Uh...thank you as well, for helping me.” Kurt said, smiling at Wes.

 

“You’re welcome.” Wes replied.

 

 

“You do realise that you and Kurt act more like a couple than actual couples do sometimes.”

 

“Wes…can I tell you something?” Blaine asked, seeming nervous as he sat next to his best friend on his sofa.

 

“Sure, what’s wrong?”

 

“I…I think I’m falling in love with him,” Blaine muttered, staring down at his sofa and picking at his sleeves. “But I…I don’t know what I’m supposed to do because I told him that we should be friends and I don’t want to confuse him by saying that I want to date him and ugh, what do I do?”

 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you should ask him out.”

 

“Why are you saying that?” Blaine asked, raising his eyebrow.

 

“Because I saw you two tonight. I haven’t seen you that happy in so long and it was just because you were in Kurt’s presence. Even after he hurt himself, it was obvious how much you cared about him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody look so in love before, and you’re not even together. I know that it’s killing you trying to stay just friends with him.”

 

“What if he doesn’t feel the same way anymore?” Blaine asked.

 

“Oh my god,” Wes laughed. “I thought that being gay somehow meant that you weren’t completely oblivious to when someone likes you or not.”

 

“I am not oblivious!”

 

“If you think that there’s any possibility Kurt doesn’t feel the same way about you, then yeah, you are.”

 

Blaine sighed, sitting silently for a few minutes. “Will you be okay here by yourself for a little while?” He asked all of a sudden. “I have to go do something.”

 

“If by something you mean ask Kurt out, then yes.” Wes laughed.

 

“Wish me luck.” Blaine said, laughing nervously as he made his way to the door.

 

“You don’t need it!” Wes called to him as he left the apartment.

 

 

“Kurt, it’s for you.” Santana said once she opened the door, revealing Blaine.

 

“Because I can clearly walk to the door.” Kurt said, gesturing to his swollen ankle.

 

“You’re so dramatic, ugh,” Santana said, although there was affection in her voice. “Come in.”

 

Kurt smiled when Blaine entered the apartment, but he had a confused expression on his face soon after.

 

“Hey…not that I’m not happy to see you but what are you doing here?”

 

“I uh, wanted to ask you something…kind of.” Blaine said nervously, glancing at Santana as she left the living room.

 

“Okay,” Kurt smiled, patting the space next to him for Blaine to sit down.

 

“So uh…I, um, I was wondering if, um…”

 

“You’re so nervous,” Kurt said, his smile faltering. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing! Nothing’s wrong I just…uh…okay,” Blaine said, taking a deep breath. “I was wondering if youmaybewantedtogoonadatewithme?” Blaine rushed out, shutting his eyes.

 

When Kurt didn’t reply, he slowly opened his eyes to see the nineteen year old smiling at him, looking as if he was trying to stop himself from laughing.

 

“What?” Blaine asked.

 

“You just…you were so nervous to ask me that,” Kurt giggled. “It was really cute.” Blaine made a little groaning noise, ducking his head as he blushed. “Aw, now you’re blushing.”

 

“Just shut up and answer my question.” Blaine groaned, hiding his face.

 

“Yes,” Kurt laughed. “Of course I want to go on a date with you.”

 

“Oh thank god,” Blaine sighed. “I was worried that your feelings had changed or you thought that it was weird that I wanted to go on a date with you because I suggested that we don’t date but you know, I couldn’t stop thinking about you like, ever, and I can’t be just friends anymore and mphff–” Kurt cut Blaine off the only way he could think – with a kiss.

 

Blaine made a shocked noise when Kurt first pressed their lips together but he soon melted into his, threading his fingers through Kurt’s soft hair and pulling him closer.

 

When the two boys finally pulled apart, they leant their foreheads together; their faces so close that their noses were nudging together. They stayed there for a few minutes, just smiling at each other until Kurt broke the silence.

 

“I just hope your date idea doesn’t require too much walking.” He said, laughing a little.

 

“We can wait until your ankle is better if you want?”

 

“Ugh, nooooo,” Kurt groaned, rubbing his nose against Blaine’s. “That’s too long.”

 

“It’ll only take a few days,” Blaine laughed.

 

“I don’t care. Still too long.” Kurt muttered, smiling.

 

“Okay,” Blaine replied, still laughing a little. “Is tomorrow soon enough for you?”

 

“Sigh, I suppose it’ll have to do.” Kurt said dramatically, grinning at Blaine almost straight after as he failed to keep a straight face.

 

“I have to go,” Blaine said, pulling away from Kurt a little. “I left Wes in my apartment.”

 

“Boo,” Kurt frowned.

 

“Just keep thinking about our date tomorrow, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Kurt grinned.

 

Blaine stood up, leaning down to kiss Kurt quickly, pulling away with an adorable ‘mwah’ sound.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Blaine smiled.

 

“Bye.” Kurt replied sweetly, smiling at Blaine.

 

 

“You’re acting like a five year old on Christmas morning!” Wes laughed as Blaine jumped onto his sofa and fist pumped the air.

 

“I’m going on a date with Kurt!” Blaine exclaimed, jumping up and down a little.

 

“All the more reason for you to sit down properly like a normal twenty nine year old so that you’re not in hospital when tomorrow actually happens.”

 

Blaine sighed, jumping off of the sofa and sitting back down next to his best friend.

 

“I need to come up with the perfect date by tomorrow…” Blaine muttered. “Crap.”

 

“Stop worrying,” Wes laughed. “That boy is crazy about you.”

 

“I just want it to be perfect.”

 

“It will be,” Wes assured him. “Just stop worrying so much about it.”

 

 

The next day, Blaine texted Kurt to tell him that he’d pick him up at six and Kurt grinned, clutching his phone to his chest and squealing for a few seconds before texting Blaine back.

 

Kurt spent the whole day limping around his room trying to find the perfect outfit before beginning to get ready. He finished getting ready way to early and was left with nothing to do but get extra nervous while he waited for Blaine to arrive.

 

There was a knock on the door just before six causing Kurt to jump off the sofa and wince in pain when he landed on his foot a little too hard. He recovered quickly, however, and made his way to the door, his breath catching in his throat as soon as he saw Blaine standing outside.

 

He was dressed in a plaid top, a light pink bow-tie and suspenders. If you’d have described the outfit to Kurt, he’d have told you that it would look ridiculous, but Blaine…he looked perfect.

 

“You look…” Kurt breathed out, unable to finish his sentence.

 

“So do you,” Blaine laughed nervously, holding his hand out for Kurt. “Come on.” He said, smiling and helping Kurt walk to the car.

 

Blaine took them to a small Chinese restaurant that Kurt didn’t even know existed and they sat in a booth tucked away in the corner. Blaine shyly snuck his hand across the table and held Kurt’s hand, running his thumb over the back of his soft hand as Kurt ducked his head, smiling as he blushed.

 

A waiter came over and took their orders, smiling at the sight of the two boys holding hands, before leaving once again.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous on a date,” Blaine laughed, taking a sip of his drink.

 

“I’ve never even been on a date.” Kurt shrugged.

 

“Wait…you’ve never – but how?”

 

“Because I’m me.”

 

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Blaine asked, genuinely confused about why nobody would want to date Kurt.

 

“Let’s see,” Kurt began, counting each thing on his fingers. “I love fashion, I sound like a girl, I’m obsessed with musicals –”

 

“Okay firstly,” Blaine said, cutting Kurt off. “You don’t sound anything like a girl, your voice is beautiful. And loving fashion and musicals is what’s special about you. Don’t you dare even try to put yourself down because I’m not going to let you. You’re amazing, Kurt, and you don’t even see it.”

 

“I -” Kurt was unable to speak as the waiter came back over with their dinner.

 

The subject was dropped as the two boys began to talk about other things and continue smiling at each other shyly over their food.

 

Far too soon, they’d finished dinner and desert and were making their way back home. Once they arrived at Kurt’s apartment, Blaine helped Kurt walk to the door and took both of his hands into his own when they were just outside.

 

“I had fun tonight,” Kurt smiled. “Thank you.”

 

“You don’t have to thank me,” Blaine insisted. “Um, I was wondering if you wanted to do anything tomorrow?”

 

“I can’t,” Kurt frowned. “I have school.”

 

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Blaine laughed. “Oh well, we’ll do something another day.”

 

“Okay.” Kurt grinned, leaning in at the same time as Blaine to press their lips together.

 

They got lost in each other for a while, their arms wrapped around each other’s as they continued to kiss. They were snapped out of their little world when Santana opened the door, telling them to stop eating each other’s faces.

 

“I’ll be in in a minute,” Kurt said to Santana, looking at her over his shoulder until she went back inside. “Call me when you get home?”

 

“Mhm,” Blaine hummed, leaning back in to press a single kiss to Kurt’s lips before pulling away completely.

 

Kurt stood outside until Blaine’s car was out of sight, smiling like a lovesick idiot. He finally went back inside, leaning against the apartment door and trying to contain his happiness.

 

“I’d ask how it went,” Santana began, sitting on the sofa. “But I have a feeling you’re going to turn into a teenage girl.”

 

Kurt rolled his eyes, crossing the room to sit next to his best friend. “It was perfect.” Kurt grinned.

 

“Clearly,” Santana laughed. “That little display you two put on out there makes me think it was more than perfect.”

 

“Shut up,” Kurt laughed, nudging Santana in the side. “Okay, I’m exhausted so I’m gonna go to bed. Night Santana.”

 

 

Despite being in college the next day, Kurt spent all of his time texting Blaine. He couldn’t participate in a lot of stuff, dance especially, anyway because of his foot, so why not text his boyfriend? The only downside was that texting and walking lead to not seeing where you were going, and not seeing where you were going meant walking straight into people.

 

Kurt screeched unnecessarily loudly when he walked into someone, sending them both flying over. He cried out in pain, sitting up and clutching his ankle, his phone somewhere in the deserted hall from where it went flying out of his hand.

 

“Oh my god!” The person exclaimed, shuffling over to Kurt. “Are you okay?”

 

Kurt shook his head, his face scrunching up in pain.

 

“Let me take you to the nurse’s office,” He said, holding his hands out to help Kurt up.

 

“My phone,” Kurt squeezed out, trying desperately not to cry. The person retrieved Kurt’s phone and handed it to him as soon as he managed to get Kurt up onto his feet…well, foot.

 

The person helped Kurt to the nurse’s office, freaking out when Kurt started to cry. Kurt just shook his head, physically unable to talk because he was in so much pain.

 

He was barely able to tell the nurse that his ankle was already swollen before he fell over and sort of mumbled out his name when he was asked what it was.

 

Kurt began to freak out a little when he was told that he may have broken his ankle and he’d have to go to the hospital for an x-ray, muttering Blaine’s name over and over again.

 

“Who’s Blaine?” The nurse asked. “Does he go here?”

 

Kurt shook his head.

 

“Is there any way we can contact him?”

 

Kurt pulled his phone out with shaky hands, scrolling through his contacts to Blaine’s name and handing the phone to the nurse.

 

 

Blaine was in the middle of helping Wes put furniture together for his new apartment when he heard his phone ringing from the other side of the room. He quickly ran across the room just in time to answer the phone, smiling when he saw Kurt’s picture on his screen.

 

“Hey you,” Blaine greeted when he answered the phone.

 

“Is this Blaine?” A feminine voice asked.

 

“Uh, yeah…” Blaine replied, confusion evident on his face. Wes looked over at him questioningly, Blaine just shrugging at him in reply. “Who’s this?”

 

“I’m a nurse at Kurt’s college,” She explained. “I was wondering if you could possibly meet us at the hospital?”

 

“Hospital!?” Blaine exclaimed too loudly, causing Wes to cross the room and try to calm him down. “Why –what happened? Is he okay?”

 

“He’s fine, he just may have broken his ankle,” Blaine breathed a sigh of relief. “We just need to take him in for an x-ray and he’s a little shaken. He kept saying your name so I thought it would help if you could meet us there.”

 

“Yeah,” Blaine breathed, relieved that nothing serious had happened. “Yeah, I’ll leave now.”

 

Once Blaine was finished on the phone, Wes insisted that he took Blaine to the hospital as he was still shaking from being told that he needed to go and meet Kurt at the hospital. He explained what happened to Wes while they were in the car and practically darted out of the car as soon as they were at the hospital.

 

He met the nurse outside – he only knew it was the nurse because she came over to Blaine and told him where Kurt was – before making his way inside to find Kurt. By the time he actually got to Kurt, he was getting a cast put on his foot.

 

“Hey,” Blaine smiled as he crossed the room, awkwardly hugging Kurt from the side and burying his face in the nineteen year olds hair. “What happened?”

 

“I walked into someone in the hall and fell over,” Kurt explained, clutching Blaine’s arm to his chest where he was still sort-of-hugging him. “I obviously landed on my ankle and because it was already injured from Saturday I broke it.”

 

Blaine pressed kiss after kiss into Kurt’s hair, never wanting to let go of him. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Blaine said, feeling a little emotional. “I was told that I needed to meet you at the hospital and I didn’t know why. I kind of just assumed the worst.”

 

“All done,” The doctor said once he was finished with Kurt’s cast, standing up and smiling. “Unfortunately, with the cast comes learning how to walk on crutches.”

 

“Blegh,” Kurt said, making Blaine laugh adoringly.

 

“I’ll help you. I was on crutches when I was fifteen so I’m an expert.” He said, laughing still.

 

“What about school?” Kurt asked. “I go to a performing arts college. Pretty much everything except singing requires movement.”

 

“I would suggest just talking to your teachers and see what they say.” The doctor replied.

 

“Okay,” Kurt sighed.

 

“Let’s get you up on these.” The doctor said, bringing a pair of crutches over to Kurt and helping him up.

 

Kurt was exhausted by the time he reached the door, and that was with Blaine’s help.

 

“I feel like I’m gonna hate using these.” Kurt said to Blaine, sitting down on the first seat he saw.

 

“You’ll get used to them.” Blaine laughed.

 

Wes, the nurse, and the boy that bumped into Kurt made their way over to him, asking him if he was okay.

 

“I’m so sorry,” The boy said, looking genuinely guilty. “I should’ve been looking where I was going.”

 

“It’s okay,” Kurt replied with a smile. “I should’ve been looking where I was going too.”

 

“I’m Adam, by the way.”

 

“Kurt.” He replied.

 

“Do you want to come back to school or do you want to go with Blaine?” The nurse asked.

 

“Is it okay if I go with Blaine?” Kurt asked. “I can barely walk in with these and if I attempt to go to school right now I’ll probably end up breaking my other ankle.”

 

“That’s fine,” The nurse smiled. “Come on you.” She said to Adam, leading him out of the door.

 

“Ready to try and walk to the car?” Blaine asked with a smirk.

 

“Ugh,” Kurt groaned, eliciting laughter from Blaine and Wes. “Can’t you just, like, carry me?”

 

“No,” Blaine laughed. “Come on, you need to learn how to walk on them.”

 

He helped Kurt stand up and helped him walk to the car, easing him into the passenger seat before putting his crutches in the back. Wes agreed to let him drive his own car back as he’d calmed down, and climbed into the back seat.

 

“You okay?” Blaine asked Kurt once he was in the car.

 

“Yeah,” Kurt smiled, leaning his head against the back of the seat.

 

“Good.” Blaine replied, leaning over to press a kiss to Kurt’s forehead before making his way back to Wes’s, dropping his best friend off and taking Kurt to his apartment.

 

“I feel kinda bad for leaving Wes,” Blaine said as he pulled away from his friend’s apartment. “He’s only just moved there and it’s a mess.”

 

“We can go back if you want to?” Kurt suggested. “At least that way I get to watch you lift heavy stuff.”

 

“Ha ha,” Blaine said sarcastically, but couldn’t stop himself from laughing a little bit. “He’ll be fine. I’ll help him out more tomorrow. I have you to look after right now.” He said, smiling softly at Kurt.

 

Kurt’s face scrunched up happily, making Blaine laugh. Yeah, he had the cutest boyfriend ever.

 

 

The two boys spent the rest of the day cuddled up on the sofa watching movies and laughing as Blaine tried to throw popcorn into Kurt’s mouth from where he was lying with his head in Blaine’s lap.

 

“Open your mouth wider!” Blaine laughed.

 

“I can’t open it any wider,” Kurt said, laughing. “You just can’t aim, even though my face is like inches away from your hand.”

 

Blaine laughed, deliberately throwing popcorn at Kurt’s face and making him giggle. Kurt reached behind him into the popcorn bowl and grabbed a handful.

 

“Open,” Kurt said, giggling. Blaine opened his mouth, trying not to laugh as Kurt threw all of the popcorn at him.

 

“I got some in my mouth!” Blaine laughed once he finished eating the little amount of popcorn that he actually caught in his mouth. “On another note, we’re making a mess.”

 

“Buzz kill.” Kurt pouted, laughing his head off when he unexpectedly got another handful of popcorn thrown at his face.

 

“Were you never taught to eat your food and not play with it?” Blaine asked accusingly, leaning forward a little.

 

“Nope,” Kurt laughed, pulling Blaine further forward by the back of his head and beginning to kiss him.

 

“What have I gotten myself into?” Blaine teased, pressing another kiss to Kurt’s lips.

 

“Shut up.” Kurt mumbled against Blaine’s lips, keeping his hand on the back of his boyfriends head as they continued to kiss.

 

 

“My neck hurts,” Blaine laughed as he finally pulled away from the nineteen year old.

 

“You started it.” Kurt smirked.

 

“Am I allowed to clean up now, or…?”

 

“I suppose so.” Kurt sighed dramatically.

 

“You’re lying in a pool of popcorn,” Blaine pointed out. “Just think about that for a second.”

 

“Ew,” Kurt said, his face scrunching up adorably.

 

“Exactly.” Blaine said, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s nose before helping him sit up.

 

“I wanna help you,” Kurt sighed as Blaine began to clean up. “I feel bad.”

 

“Aw,” Blaine cooed, kneeling on the floor in front of Kurt. “It’s okay, I promise.”

 

“I still feel like I should help.”

 

“You do realise that even if you tried to help, I wouldn’t let you right? Broken ankle or no broken ankle.”

 

“Just hurry up so that we can get back to cuddling.” Kurt smiled, leaning forward to brush his nose against Blaine’s.

 

Blaine grinned, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s lips and pulling away with a ‘mwah’ before going back to tidying up.

 

 

“I don’t wanna go home.” Kurt groaned. They were lying back on the sofa watching a movie – Kurt had his head resting on Blaine’s chest.

 

“You can stay if you want,” Blaine replied. “But you’ll have to wear my clothes to school tomorrow.”

 

Kurt looked up at Blaine, grinning at the idea of having to wear Blaine’s clothes. “That idea appeals to me.”

 

“Me too.” Blaine laughed, pressing a tiny kiss to Kurt’s lips.

 

“Speaking of…do you have anything I can change into to sleep in?”

 

“Yup,” Blaine smiled, sitting Kurt up before getting up and going into his bedroom, returning a few moments later.

 

Kurt made his way into the bathroom slowly, the clothes resting on his shoulder, so he could get changed.

 

He struggled when it came to getting out of his jeans, but eventually succeeded and changed into the pyjama bottoms that Blaine had given him, feeling much more comfortable.

 

“You okay in there?” Blaine asked from outside the bathroom. “You’ve been in there for a while.”

 

Kurt opened the door, smiling at Blaine’s worried expression. “I couldn’t get my jeans off, I’m fine though.”

 

Blaine grinned, loving how Kurt looked in his clothes.

 

“What?” Kurt asked, looking down at himself self-consciously.

 

“Nothing…you look adorable.” Blaine said, laughing softly.

 

Kurt groaned, hiding his face but grinning nonetheless.

 

“Come on, let’s go cuddle on the sofa some more before we go to bed. I was comfy before.”

 

Kurt giggled, grabbing his crutches and making his way back to the sofa with Blaine. They stayed there for another hour or so watching TV, content with not speaking as they held each other close. Soon enough, however, they were making their way to bed. Kurt happily crawled in next to Blaine and snuggled up to his side, resting his head on his boyfriends chest as Blaine pulled the covers around them, kissing the top of Kurt’s head when the nineteen year old began to drift to sleep almost instantly.

 

 

When Kurt awoke the next morning, he rolled over to see that Blaine was missing from the bed and there was a sweet smell drifting through the apartment. Sitting up at the edge of the bed and grabbing his crutches, Kurt began to make his way into the kitchen, smiling when he reached the doorway and saw Blaine dancing and singing to music. He leaned against the doorframe, watching as Blaine continued to dance around until he turned around and saw Kurt standing there with a grin on his face, almost screaming.

 

“Don’t do that!” Blaine said, laughing. “You scared me.”

 

“I didn’t know being your boyfriend meant I was privileged enough for private kitchen concerts.” Kurt teased as Blaine walked over to the door.

 

“Shut up,” Blaine laughed, leaning in to kiss Kurt, only to be pushed back.

 

“Morning breath.” Kurt grimaced.

 

“Don’t care,” Blaine replied, leaning back in and kissing Kurt, laughing when he ducked down to get away from Blaine. “I would chase you but you’re injured so I’ll let you off.”

 

“Let’s get go and brush our teeth so you can kiss me properly.” Kurt laughed, standing up and limping towards the bathroom, resting as much weight as possible on his crutches.

 

Once Kurt reached the bathroom, he froze, causing Blaine to walk straight into him.

 

“What’s wrong?” Blaine asked.

 

“I don’t have a toothbrush.”

 

“I have spare ones, dummy.” Blaine laughing, reaching around Kurt to open the bathroom door, leading him inside.

 

Once inside, Blaine knelt down and began to rifle through the cabinet at the bottom of his sink for a spare toothbrush.

 

“Voila!” Blaine exclaimed triumphantly, standing up and handing a brand new toothbrush to Kurt.

 

“Thank you.” Kurt giggled, taking the toothbrush out of its packaging.

 

The two boys brushed their teeth in comfortable silence, glancing at each other in the mirror and grinning around their toothbrushes.

 

When he finished brushing his teeth, Kurt stood awkwardly, staring at the toothbrush intently.

 

Blaine laughed adoringly, taking it from Kurt’s hand and placing it in the cup that stood by his sink, along with his own toothbrush and the tube of toothpaste, smiling like he’d done something incredible.

 

“You’re ridiculous,” Kurt laughed, steading himself against the sink.

 

“Am I allowed to kiss you now?” Blaine asked hopefully, grinning at Kurt like a small child.

 

“Yes.” Kurt answered simply, smiling as he leaned forward to meet Blaine in a kiss.

 

Blaine brought his hands to rest of Kurt’s waist, helping him stand a little as he moved his hands from the sink to wrap his arms around Blaine’s neck, never breaking the kiss.

 

“Why do I have to go to school?” Kurt mumbled against Blaine’s lips.

 

Blaine laughed, finally disconnecting the kiss.

 

“Speaking of – you’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon. Go get ready, I left some clothes on top of my dresser for you.”

 

“Fine.” Kurt pouted, pressing one last kiss to Blaine’s lips before grabbing his crutches and making his way into the bedroom.

 

 

“Hey, wait up!” Kurt heard from behind him.

 

Turning around, Kurt was met with the face of the guy who he’d bumped into the day before.

 

“Hey,” Kurt smiled. “Adam, right?”

 

“Yeah,” Adam replied. “I just wanted to say sorry, again, about yesterday.”

 

“I told you, it’s fine,” Kurt laughed, slowly walking through the corridor beside Adam. “It was partly my fault anyway.”

 

“I know but I still feel guilty…you broke your ankle.”

 

“It’s okay,” Kurt exaggerated, still laughing a little.

 

“At least let me buy you lunch? It’s not really good consolation for breaking your ankle but…”

 

“If you insist,” Kurt sighed dramatically, giggling straight after.

 

 

“Hold on,” Kurt said, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket. He smiled when he saw a text from Blaine flash up on the screen.

 

Blaine: Do you need me to pick you up after school?

 

Kurt speared another forkful of his salad into his mouth before tapping out a reply.

 

Kurt: It’s fine. I’m gonna study with Adam after school so I’ll just get him to take me home xx

 

Kurt considered whether he should send the kisses or not, but decided to hit send before he chickened out.

 

Blaine: Okay :) xx

 

Kurt grinned, locking his phone and placing it next to his bowl on the lunch table.

 

“Who was that?” Adam asked teasingly.

 

“Blaine,” Kurt replied, smiling a little as he continued to eat his lunch.

 

“Is he like your brother or uncle or something?” Adam asked, causing Kurt to nearly choke on his lettuce.

 

Kurt cleared his throat a little, taking a sip of his water before replying.

 

“Uh…no, he’s my boyfriend.”

 

“Oh,” Adam said awkwardly, staring down at his food. “But…he looked so much older than you.”

 

“He’s not that much older than me.” Kurt said defensively, suddenly not feeling hungry.

 

“How old is he?”

 

“…Twenty nine.” Kurt said quietly.

 

“Where did you even meet him?” Adam asked, seemingly shocked.

 

“It’s a really long story, can we just…not talk about it please?” Kurt asked, feeling more than uncomfortable.

 

“Okay,” Adam agreed.

 

 

Blaine was fed up. He’d hardly spoken to his boyfriend in two weeks and it was frustrating as hell. Obviously he’d tried to take Kurt on dates or just share a phone call with the nineteen year old, but he always seemed so damn busy.

 

He’d bring Kurt coffee every morning and they’d get to talk for a few minutes before Kurt was rushing off, saying that he was going to be late to class, or he wouldn’t even be there by the time he reached his apartment and Santana would answer the door.

 

He’d text Kurt every day asking if he wanted to go to Blaine’s for dinner, but he always seemed to have study sessions with Adam. Blaine would call Kurt every night, just to talk to him, but he always seemed to be studying.

 

Blaine understood that Kurt had a lot of tests, but their relationship had only just started and it was already falling apart. He wasn’t jealous of Adam, but he missed Kurt. He missed talking to him and laughing with him. He missed kissing him and cuddling up on the sofa to watch movies with him. He just wished that his boyfriend missed him as much as he missed Kurt.

 

“You okay?” One of Blaine’s colleagues asked, noticing how miserable he seemed.

 

“Yeah, I just…tired.” Blaine said, running his hands through his hair.

 

“Go home and get some rest,” She said with a smile. “It’s Friday anyway, nobody will even notice you’re missing.”

 

“I- yeah, okay,” Blaine sighed. “Thanks.”

 

 

Blaine went home with the intention of moping around watching terrible movies that he hated and thinking about how much of a failure his relationship was, but when he smelt a strange scent coming from his kitchen, he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell that was going to happen.

 

He briefly considered whether he should even enter the kitchen, what if he was being robbed? But then he realised that somebody was clearly cooking and it was highly unlikely that if somebody broke into his apartment with the intention of robbing him they would be cooking him dinner as a sorry.

 

“Kurt?” Blaine said in surprise when he opened the kitchen door to find his kitchen table full of candles, Kurt standing at his oven and cooking who knows what.

 

“Blaine!” Kurt squealed. “Um…you’re not supposed to be here.”

 

“Neither are you. Shouldn’t you be in school?”

 

“We uh…had dance lessons all day so I got sent home.”

 

“And you got into my apartment how…?” Blaine asked, raising his eyebrow.

 

“I kind of…maybe…sort of found your spare key?” Kurt squeaked out. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here without asking you first but I just kind of wanted to surprise you and if I told you it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise and…I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s okay,” Blaine smiled. “It’s not every day I come home to find a cute guy cooking in my kitchen with about a dozen candles around my kitchen, so I’ll let you off.”

 

Kurt blushed but smiled nonetheless, getting back to whatever he was doing.

 

 

“Why am I only just finding out that you can cook like this?” Blaine groaned, shoving another forkful of food in his mouth.

 

“Close your mouth when you eat please, this was supposed to be romantic.” Kurt laughed.

 

Blaine swallowed his food before reaching across the table for Kurt’s hand.

 

“It is romantic. You may have broken into my apartment but you cooked an unbelievably delicious meal and this kitchen looks like something out of a movie,” Blaine laughed, looking around at the candles that lit up his kitchen. “It’s probably the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

 

Although the room was dimly lit, Blaine could see the blush appearing on Kurt’s cheeks as he smiled shyly.

 

“Now seriously…where did you learn to cook like this?” Blaine asked, continuing with his dinner.

 

“We did cookery in high school and I liked it so Elaine started teaching me stuff after school,” Kurt explained. “Other than that I just look at cookbooks.”

 

“This is like heaven on a plate.”

 

“You’re such a dork,” Kurt laughed.

 

“I’m serious.”

 

“Don’t eat too much, you need room for dessert.”

 

“You made dessert too?” Blaine asked. “I officially have the best boyfriend ever.”

 

“Shut up,” Kurt laughed.

 

 

After dessert, the two boys made their way into Blaine’s living room with the intention of watching TV, but all they ended up doing was rolling around on Blaine’s sofa, making out with each other.

 

“Ignore it.” Blaine mumbled against Kurt’s lips when his phone buzzed on the table next to them.

 

“It might be important –” Kurt pointed out as Blaine left a trail of kisses from his mouth to his neck, continuing to kiss the skin there. Kurt reached out to grab his phone, allowing his boyfriend to continue kissing beneath his ear. “It’s Adam.” Kurt said breathlessly, trying to tap out a reply while Blaine kissed him.

 

Blaine froze as soon as he heard Adams name.

 

“Of course it is.” Blaine muttered under his breath, sitting up and moving so that he was no longer on top of Kurt.

 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Kurt asked as he stopped hitting the keys on his phone.

 

“Nothing.” Blaine replied, standing up and leaving the room.

 

“Blaine!” Kurt shouted, following Blaine into his bedroom as fast as possible with his crutches. “What the hell was that?”

 

“Nothing, Kurt.”

 

“Don’t lie to me. What’s wrong?”

 

“Kurt, I’m fi-”

 

“Blaine!”

 

Something inside Blaine snapped and he stood up, his heartbeat speeding up as he turned to face Kurt.

 

“You want to know what’s wrong?” He asked, not being able to stop the words from spilling out of his mouth. “I’m sick of you ignoring me, that’s what’s wrong! Recently any time I try to see you or talk to you, you’re either too busy studying with Adam or you’re late for school. It’s like you don’t even want to spend time with me and we’ve only just started dating!”

 

“Are you seriously jealous of Adam?” Kurt asked incredulously.

 

“It seems as if you’d rather spend time with him than you would with me,” Blaine pointed out, his hazel eyes filling with tears. “Like just then. I was kissing you and you were more interested in texting him. How is that supposed to make me feel?”

 

“He’s my friend, Blaine! It’s not like I have the biggest supply of people willing to be friends with me!”

 

“What the hell are you talking about? You have loads of friends!”

 

“Like who? I have Santana and Adam.”

 

“You have Wes,” Blaine pointed out. “And me.”

 

“That’s not the same, though. Yeah I’m friends with Wes but he’s not somebody that I feel like I could text or call if I needed to talk to someone. And you’re my boyfriend, it’s not the same thing.”

 

“That’s not the point anyway!” Blaine cried. “I know he’s your friend and there’s nothing wrong with that but it’d be nice if you actually showed me that you cared every once in a while.”

 

“Are you kidding me?” Kurt asked, laughing. “I came over here so that I could make dinner for you and you say that I don’t care?”

 

“You’ve hardly spoken to me in two weeks!” Blaine exclaimed, willing himself not to cry. “Tonight was the first time I’ve actually felt like I have a boyfriend and like always, Adam was more important.”

 

“I wasn’t going to ignore him, Blaine! I was texting him to tell him that I was busy.”

 

“I can’t do this.” Blaine said, suddenly a lot quieter as his tears finally spilled over, sitting on the edge of his bed and pulling his trainers on and making his way into the living room.

 

“Blaine! Where are you going?” Kurt asked, following him slowly on his crutches.

 

“Out…somewhere, anywhere, I don’t know. I just need to get some fresh air. Just…go home, Kurt.” Blaine said, unable to stop the tears from coming.

 

“So this is how it’s gonna be from now on?” Kurt asked. “Whenever we have an argument you’re just gonna leave?”

 

“I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do, Kurt!” Blaine cried, more tears spilling from his golden eyes.

 

“You’re supposed to talk to me! We’re in a relationship, we’re supposed to be able to talk about things!”

 

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to talk to you when you can’t even see how much you’re hurting me!” Blaine practically screamed.

 

“Blaine,” Kurt said, his voice a lot softer. “Adam doesn’t mean anything to me. Not the way that you do.”

 

“Why should I believe that?” Blaine asked, his voice breaking. “You’d clearly rather spend time with him than me.”

 

“You should believe that because I’m your boyfriend and you should be able to trust me,” Kurt said, feeling sick.

 

“It doesn’t even feel like you’re my boyfriend anymore.” Blaine said in a strangled voice, trying to contain a sob.

 

“God dammit Blaine!” Kurt exclaimed. “Adam’s not the one that I’m in love with! Why is that so hard for you to see!?”

 

Blaine’s heart began to beat even faster – if that was possible – as his breath caught in his throat, more tears leaving his eyes. He wrapped his arms around himself, feeling like a small child.

 

“I don’t want to be with Adam, or anybody else. I only want to be with you.”

 

Blaine was seconds away from pretty much jumping into Kurt’s arms and never letting him go when there was a knock on the door. He sighed but he sounded like he was choking as he tried not to let the sobs that were desperate to leave his body out.

 

Wiping his eyes as much as possible, Blaine made his way to the door.

 

“Look, I’m not interested in buying anything so –” Blaine began, cut off by the man on the other side of the door.

 

“You’re Blaine Anderson, right?”

 

“Uh…yeah.”

 

“I…you probably have no idea who I am,” The man said, laughing nervously, “Um…my name’s Cooper, I…I…I’m your brother.”

 

Blaine froze. “…Is this some kind of sick joke?” He asked. “I don’t have a brother.”

 

“I know that you think you don’t but…I’m almost eighteen years older than you. I had already left home by the time you were born and when I was told that mum died…I couldn’t come home.”

 

“No…” Blaine said, shaking his head and feeling incredibly faint. “No…you’re not my brother. I don’t have a brother. Dad would’ve told me if I had a brother!”

 

Kurt couldn’t stop himself from coming closer to Blaine when he saw how broken and confused he looked.

 

“He hated me,” The man…Cooper…replied. “He didn’t want to lose you, even though he did anyway.”

 

“No!” Blaine screamed. “Stop it! You’re not my brother!”

 

“Blaine -” Kurt said, trying to comfort Blaine, only to be pushed away.

 

“Leave me alone!” Blaine cried, running into his bedroom.

 

Kurt would’ve run, or tried to run anyway, after him had it not been for the man standing at the door, probably confused as hell.

 

“Is he okay?” He asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

 

“Yeah…I…he will be. We kinda had a huge fight before you came and…I don’t know.” Kurt said, feeling a little confused himself. “You’re really his brother, aren’t you?”

 

“How’d you guess?” The guy asked, laughing a little.

 

“You look like him,” Kurt pointed out. “Plus you seem genuinely worried about him even though you’ve never met him before.”

 

“Can you just…give him my number and tell him that I want to talk to him? Whenever he’s ready.”

 

“Sure.” Kurt smiled, accepting the piece of paper that said ‘Cooper Anderson’ followed by his number.

 

“Thank you.”

 

 

When Kurt entered Blaine’s room, it was to find Blaine sitting on the end of his bed, staring blankly at the door as if he was waiting for Kurt.

 

“Blaine?” Kurt said softly, making his way towards the bed on his crutches and sitting next to his boyfriend.

 

Blaine looked up at Kurt, his face instantly scrunching up as sobs began to wrack his body, tears streaming endlessly down his face.

 

He curled himself into a little ball, his knees drawn up to his chest, and rocked himself back and forth, crying harder than he’d cried in so long.

 

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine as best as he could, whispering calming words into his hair where he peppered kisses.

 

He gently maneuvered himself and Blaine into a lying position, trying not to move his leg too quickly. Blaine buried his face in Kurt’s chest, fisting his t-shirt with his hand as he soaked it with tears.

 

The two of them eventually fell asleep in that position – Kurt’s fingers tangled in Blaine’s curls and Blaine’s whole body snuggled as close as possible.

 

 

Kurt awoke to the sound of knocking on Blaine’s apartment door. He detangled himself from Blaine carefully so as not to wake his boyfriend and grabbed his crutches, limping his way into the living room.

 

“You look like crap,” Wes said once Kurt opened the door to him too.

 

“Hi to you too,” Kurt retorted. “Blaine’s asleep.”

 

“He’s always asleep at this hour on a Saturday,” Wes laughed. “Seriously though, why do you look so crappy?”

 

Kurt sighed, gesturing for Wes to come inside before sitting next to him on the sofa and beginning to explain the events of the previous night.

 

“We got into a huge fight last night and while we were basically still fighting someone showed up saying that he was Blaine’s brother. Blaine didn’t believe him but…he was definitely Blaine’s brother,” Kurt sighed. “He’s a mess. He didn’t say one word to me afterwards, he just cried himself to sleep in my arms.”

 

“Wow…” Wes said.

 

“You don’t seem as surprised as I’d expect you to be…” Kurt pointed out. “I just told you that Blaine’s brother – who he didn’t even know existed – showed up last night.”

 

“That’s because I’m not surprised…” Wes said, biting his lip. “I kind of already knew that he had a brother.”

 

“What?!” Kurt exclaimed, lowering his voice when he realised how loud he’d been. “You knew that your best friend had a brother all of these years and you didn’t once think to tell him?”

 

Neither Kurt nor Wes noticed Blaine standing at the door of his bedroom with tears rolling down his cheeks until they heard a sniffle come from him.

 

“Blaine -” Wes started.

 

“Don’t,” Blaine said brokenly. “You knew I had a brother? How could you not tell me something like that?”

 

“I…I couldn’t,” Wes said, staring down at his hands. “When I was little I ran into the office and I accidentally knocked your file off of a desk. I didn’t know what it was so I picked it up and it said that you had a brother. I wanted to tell you straight away but one of the social workers found me and told me that I couldn’t tell you because your dad didn’t want you to know.”

 

“We’re not in care anymore!” Blaine cried.

 

“Blaine…I’m so-”

 

“Get out.” Blaine said, his voice cracking a little.

 

“Blaine –”

 

“Go. Away.” Blaine said, and he was actually kind of scaring Kurt. He’d never seen Blaine look, or sound, so threatening.

 

Guiltily, Wes stood up and made his way out of the apartment.

 

“Blaine, are you –”

 

“You weren’t there.” Blaine said, more tears falling from his eyes.

 

“What?”

 

“I woke up and you weren’t there. I thought you left me.” Blaine said brokenly, a small sob escaping him.

 

“Blaine, baby -” Kurt said sadly. “Come here.” He said, opening his arms for Blaine.

 

Blaine made his way over to the sofa, sitting next to Kurt and cuddling into his arms.

 

“I could never leave you,” He said, pressing a kiss into Blaine’s hair. “I promise you, I’m not going anywhere.”

 

“I love you,” Blaine said, his voice cracking as he looked up at Kurt with tear stained cheeks, more tears appearing in his eyes. “I love you so much.”

 

“I love you too, Blaine.” Kurt replied, hugging Blaine close with everything in him.

 

“He’s my brother, isn’t he?” Blaine asked, burying his face in Kurt’s shoulder. “Cooper…he’s really my brother.”

 

Kurt nodded, wishing he could take Blaine’s pain away. “Yeah…he is.”

 

Blaine let out another sob, clinging to Kurt like his life depended on him.

 

“Why did nobody tell me?” Blaine cried. “How could my dad keep that from me for twenty nine years? I don’t even know him anymore and he still managed to keep it from me.” He said, soaking Kurt’s top all over again.

 

“I don’t know,” Kurt whispered hopelessly. “I really don’t know.”

 

“I thought I was finished with stupid, family drama. I thought that now that I’m living on my own I could finally start my own life and forget about that stupid excuse for a father but he’s still finding ways to make my life a complete hell.”

 

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Kurt replied. “I…I wish I knew how to help you…to take all of your pain away.”

 

“Hey,” Blaine whispered, sitting up and cupping Kurt’s cheek. “You are helping me. Just by sitting here right now, you’re helping me.”

 

 

Kurt and Blaine were lying on the sofa – Blaine with his head pillowed on Kurt’s chest – watching a movie when Kurt’s phone began to ring. He grabbed it from the coffee table and bit his lip when he saw the caller ID.

 

“It’s Adam…”

 

“Just answer it.” Blaine said, sitting up and leaning against the back of the sofa.

 

Kurt didn’t miss the broken expression on Blaine’s face when he answered the call, and didn’t miss how he went to stand up, but he stopped him with a hand on his wrist.

 

“Hey, Adam…um, I can’t really talk at the moment…Blaine’s kind of going through a lot right now and he needs me so…okay…okay…bye.”

 

“You didn’t have to do that,” Blaine said, although it was clearly a lie. “I would’ve been fine.”

 

“Yes I did,” Kurt said, sitting up and pulling Blaine down next to him. “Firstly, you clearly wouldn’t have been fine and secondly, even if you would’ve been fine I would’ve done the same thing. You’re more important right now, okay?”

 

Blaine replied by wrapping his arms around Kurt’s neck and burying his face in his shoulder.

 

“Thank you,” Blaine whispered quietly. “I know I’ve been acting like a jealous brat -”

 

“Shut up, Blaine,” Kurt laughed. “You had every right to be upset with me. I have been ignoring you, but I swear I didn’t mean to. I’ve been busy with so many tests – and I know that’s no excuse – and I didn’t realise that I was pushing you away, and then I didn’t realise how much I hurt you. If I ever do it again then tell me straight away, and if I don’t listen then shout at me, and if I still don’t listen then hit me over the head with something really hard.” He said, eliciting a small laugh from Blaine. “There’s that beautiful smile.” Kurt said, smiling at his boyfriend.

 

“I’m sorry too,” Blaine said. “I should’ve tried harder, and I should’ve believed you when you said that Adam doesn’t mean anything to you I just…I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like you’re gonna find somebody your own age and you’re gonna leave me. I know it’s stupid but –”

 

“It’s okay. I feel like that too sometimes and I wonder why you settled for me but then I’ll look over and you’ll be doing something completely stupid like balancing popcorn on your nose and I’ll realise that I don’t care. And that’s really selfish but it’s true.”

 

“I didn’t settle for you, I fell in love with you. There’s a big difference.”

 

Kurt grinned at him. “I love hearing you say that you’re in love with me.”

 

“I’m in love with you.” Blaine said, smiling at Kurt.

 

“I’m in love with you too,” Kurt giggled.

 

“What should I do about the whole brother thing?” Blaine asked.

 

“Well that conversation changed quickly…”

 

“I’m serious. I don’t know what I should do…”

“I have his number if you want to talk to him,” Kurt said, rubbing his hands up and down Blaine’s arms. “But you don’t have to until you’re ready.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.” Blaine laughed.

“That’s okay too. It’s completely up to you,” Kurt said, grabbing the paper with Cooper’s number on it. “You can rip this up if you want to. Or, you can leave it in your wallet or on your dresser and use it when and if you want to.”

“Will you be there?” Blaine asked, taking the paper from Kurt and staring down at the number on it. “If I call him…will you stay with me?”

“If you want me to be with you then I’ll be with you.”

“Thank you.” Blaine smiled, hugging his boyfriend tightly.

“I love you.” Kurt said as if that explained everything.

“I love you too.”


	4. Chapter 4

After their huge argument, things started to get a little better for Kurt and Blaine. Kurt had taken a few days off from college to be with Blaine and despite Adam’s questions of why he and Kurt had stopped studying together, Kurt made sure that he spent more time with Blaine and was always there for him, no matter what – especially with the whole brother fiasco.

Blaine was still having a mental battle over whether or not he should call Cooper. Kurt kept telling him that it was his decision, and he didn’t have to do anything that he wasn’t comfortable with, but that honestly just made Blaine’s decision harder. Knowing that he had the choice of whether or not he called Cooper made it harder because he didn’t know if he wanted to call Cooper or not – at least if somebody else was making the decision for him he wouldn’t have to think about the pros and cons.

Then there was the problem with Wes. It’d been a week since Blaine had found out that Wes knew about Cooper and he was refusing to talk to his best friend. Of course, he missed Wes incredibly, but he’d still kept a huge secret from him, and Blaine wasn’t ready to forgive him.

Kurt, on the other hand, was trying to avoid Santana’s ongoing interrogation of why he was suddenly spending so much time at Blaine’s. For whatever reason, Santana had a crazy theory that Kurt had ditched her and moved into Blaine’s apartment – even though all of his stuff was still at their apartment and he’d only been dating Blaine for not even a month – no matter how many times Kurt told her that Blaine was going through a lot.

“You’re thinking really loudly.” Kurt murmured, not opening his eyes as he combed his fingers through Blaine’s curls from where the older man’s head was resting on his chest.

“Sorry.” Blaine replied, turning his head and pressing a kiss to Kurt’s chest over his t-shirt.

“What’s up?” Kurt asked, blinking his eyes opening and looking down at his boyfriend.

“Everything,” Blaine sighed, snuggling closer to Kurt. “I think…I think I want to call Cooper…but I’m not sure.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“I just…my dad. I know that if I talk to Cooper we’re gonna end up having a conversation about him and I just…I thought I was done with my dad.”

“I get that, but…if you don’t call Cooper, you’re gonna have this on your mind all of the time anyway, so at least if you talk to him and you get the conversation about your dad out of the way it’ll sort of be like…closure, in a way.”

“I guess,” Blaine sighed. “I’ll call him later, but for now,” He said, sitting up a little before climbing over Kurt. “I want to make out with my boyfriend and feel like a normal person.”

Kurt smiled, reaching up to run his fingers through Blaine’s hair. “That can be arranged.”

***

“Why are you staring so intently at your phone?”

“Twelve messages…” Kurt said, blinking at the phone in his hands.

“Um…”

“I’ve received twelve text messages since last night…one is from Santana…eleven are from Adam,” Kurt said, finally looking up at Blaine. “Eleven messages Blaine.”

“Okay…”

“He won’t leave me alone!” Kurt groaned. “Why is it so hard for him to understand that I. Cannot. Hang. Out. With. Him. Right. Now!?” He exclaimed frustratedly, punctuating each word with an aggressive tap on his phone, deleting message after message.

Blaine tried not to laugh as he pried Kurt’s phone out of his hands. “Firstly, you’re going to break your phone if you keep doing that and secondly, you can hang out with him, you’re just refusing to.”

“Because I don’t want to,” Kurt pointed out. “Now give me my phone.”

“Nope,” Blaine laughed, putting his phone on the other side of the room knowing that Kurt wouldn’t get up to get it. He made his way back over to Kurt and sat down on his lap, eliciting an ‘oof’ noise from Kurt, and pressed a kiss to his nose. “I love you.”

“You’re heavy.” Kurt whined teasingly, scrunching his face up.

“Are you implying that I’m fat?” Blaine asked, smirking at his boyfriend.

“If I say yes will you give me my phone back?”

“What kind of logic even is that?” Blaine laughed, planting kisses over Kurt’s face and making him squirm and laugh.

“Blaaaaiiiineeeeee,” Kurt giggled.

“Kuuuuuuurt.” Blaine mimicked with a smile.

“Get off.” Kurt laughed.

“Hmmm…nope.” Blaine smirked, leaning in to press a kiss to his laughing boyfriends’ lips.

“Pretty please?” Kurt mumbled against Blaine’s lips.

“Nuh-uh.”

Kurt finally gave in and continued to kiss his boyfriend until everything added up in his head.

“I know what you’re doing!” Kurt exclaimed suddenly, pushing Blaine back a little.

“I’m not –”

“You’re procrastinating!” Kurt said, looking quite adorable. “You’re wasting time because you think it’ll get you out of calling Cooper.”

Blaine groaned, dropping his head to Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt sighed a little, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s body and rubbing over his back soothingly.

“If you really don’t want to then you don’t have to,” Kurt assured him. “But if you do want to then stop using me as a distraction.”

“I want to do it, I…I’ll call him now.” Blaine said, climbing off of Kurt and going into his bedroom to get his phone.

When he returned to the living room, he climbed onto the sofa and pulled his knees up to his chest, curing into Kurt’s side and typing Cooper’s number into his phone. Kurt wrapped an arm around him, pressing a kiss to the top of Blaine’s head and allowing him to snuggle into his arm.

Taking a shaky breath, Blaine pressed the call button and held his phone to his ear.

“Hello?” Cooper’s voice came from the other end of the phone.

“Hi, um…it’s Blaine.” Blaine replied quietly.

“Oh, hey. What’s up?”

“I was wondering if um…if maybe we could meet up for coffee or something and talk?”

“Sure,” Cooper replied, sounding as if he was smiling. “I can meet in about two hours if that’s okay with you?”

“Yeah, uh, that’s fine…” Blaine replied, biting his lip considerately. “Um…is it…would it be okay if I brought my boyfriend with me?” He asked, looking up at Kurt to see the nineteen year old smiling at him softly.

“Of course. I’ll see soon then.”

“Bye.” Blaine said, ending the call and curling further into Kurt’s side.

“You okay?” Kurt asked, carding his fingers through Blaine’s curls.

“Yeah,” Blaine sighed. “You are okay with coming with me to meet Cooper, right?”

“Of course I am.” Kurt smiled, kissing Blaine’s forehead.

***

Two hours later, Blaine was helping Kurt limp from the car to the coffee shop and laughing at his boyfriend cursing under his breath.

“I thought it was supposed to get easier to walk on these?” Kurt groaned, struggling to walk forwards.

“You can do it!” Blaine teased, rubbing Kurt’s back soothingly.

“Shut up.” Kurt said, glaring at Blaine but smiling slightly nonetheless.

Although Blaine was teasing him, Kurt was glad that he had managed to take his mind off of the Cooper situation. If making fun of him calmed Blaine down…well, he’d just have to endure it.

“Ugh,” Kurt groaned. “The door is so far away.”

“It’s a few feet away,” Blaine laughed.

“Exactly.” 

After finally reaching the door of the coffee shop, Kurt turned to Blaine with a serious look on his face.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Blaine sighed, smiling a little at his boyfriend. “I think so.”

Smiling, Kurt reached forward to push the door open, groaning when it closed before he managed to walk through it.

Blaine laughed, walking a little ahead of Kurt and holding the door open for him, allowing him to limp into the coffee shop. They spotted Cooper almost instantly and made their way over to the table he was sitting at.

“Hey,” Blaine said nervously, fiddling with his hands.

Cooper looked up from where he was doing something on his phone and smiled, locking his phone and putting it on the table in front of him. “Hi,”

Blaine helped Kurt sit down before resting his crutches against his chair and sitting down himself.

“So…um,” Blaine said, laughing nervously. “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say.”

“Isn’t there anything you want to ask me?” Cooper asked. “I mean, you just found out that you have a brother after 29 years of thinking you were an only child.”

“How did you even know you had a brother? If you moved away before I was born and clearly never came to visit…”

“I tried to come and visit, but Dad didn’t let me. He didn’t like the fact that I wanted to be an actor and didn’t want me anywhere near you; he claimed that you were the only reminder he had left of Mom.”

“Yeah, that’s why he hit me almost every day.” Blaine laughed incredulously.

“I’m sorry,” Cooper said guiltily. “I knew what he was like…I should’ve tried harder to see you, or at least tried to get you away from him.”

“It’s not your fault,” Blaine assured him. “And I did get away from him eventually.”

“Still…you deserved to know that you had a brother.”

“That wasn’t your fault either. Even if you’d tried to see me when I went into care you wouldn’t have been allowed…apparently my file said that I wasn’t allowed to know about you.”

“I guess…It’s just, you’ve been through so much and I feel like I should’ve been there for you.”

“You’re here now.” Blaine countered.

Kurt smiled at the conversation occurring between the two brothers. It was more than obvious to Kurt that the two of them were related; Cooper was just as caring as Blaine was.

“Can you…can you tell me about Mom?”

Cooper smiled sadly. “You don’t remember her, do you?”

Blaine shook his head. “I wasn’t even one when she died.”

“You’re just like her, you know,” Cooper said, smiling at his little brother. “She was the sweetest person ever…she never had anything bad to say about anyone – I honestly don’t know how she ended up with Dad. You look like her too…you have her eyes, and her ridiculous curls.”

Blaine laughed, wiping tears from his eyes.

“She would’ve adored you…she probably did adore you.”

“Can I ask…I don’t know why, I’ve just always wondered…do you…do you think she would’ve been disappointed in me?” Blaine asked quietly. “Because I’m gay?”

“She definitely wouldn’t have been disappointed in you, Blaine,” Cooper assured him, smiling sadly as Blaine began to cry. “I know I don’t really know you very well, but I can’t imagine her being disappointed in you.”

“Are you okay?” Kurt asked, rubbing Blaine’s back as the twenty nine year old wiped at his eyes, tears falling down his face.

Blaine nodded. “Yeah…yeah.” He said quietly, smiling at his boyfriend.

“I have to go. Santana’s threatening to throw my stuff away if I don’t go home and although I know she won’t actually do it, she deserves an explanation as to why I haven’t been there. Will you be okay if I go?” Kurt asked, Blaine nodding and smiling in reply.

“Yup,” He confirmed. “Promise.”

“Okay,” Kurt smiled, standing up and grabbing his crutches.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Blaine said to Cooper. “I’m just gonna walk him to the door ‘cause he tried to open it when we got here and nearly murdered it when it shut before he could walk through.”

“Blaine!” Kurt laughed.

“Okay,” Cooper laughed. “It was nice to meet you again, under better circumstances.”

“You too,” Kurt smiled. “I’m Kurt, by the way.”

“Come on you.” Blaine laughed, putting his hand on Kurt’s back as he limped towards the door.

Cooper watched as they went; watched them laugh about something that he couldn’t hear and watched them kiss sweetly at the doorway. Even though he’d only just met his brother, he was glad that he was happy after having a not-so-great childhood.

***

“Hummel!” Santana screeched when Kurt entered the apartment.

“Oh my god, Tana!” Kurt exclaimed. “It’s a complete mess in here! I’ve only been gone for a few days, and you’ve turned the apartment upside down!”

“Because you haven’t been here to tell me to pick my bag up off the floor when I come in from work or to tell me to put my dishes in the sink and wash them instead of leave them on the counter!”

“I am not your father, I shouldn’t have to tell you to keep the apartment clean…oh my god, Santana.”

“Whatever,” Santana dismissed. “Why haven’t you been home all week?”

“I’m not explaining anything until you clean this mess up.” Kurt said defiantly, sitting down on the sofa and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Kurt!” Santana whined.

“You can try to fight me on this but you and I both know that I’m the most stubborn person on the face of this planet.”

“Fine.” Santana groaned, stomping off.

As predicted, she ended up cleaning the whole apartment quickly and sat down on the sofa opposite Kurt, demanding to know why Kurt hadn’t been at home.

“Blaine just found out that he has an older brother that his Dad tried to hide from him and he’s sort of been struggling with it, that’s why I haven’t been at home.” Kurt explained.

“Oh…” Santana mumbled. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Kurt smiled. “He met up with his brother today and they’re getting on really well considering.”

“I think…” Santana began, grinning mischievously. “I think you, me, Dani and Blaine should have a movie night.”

“Why does that idea scare me?” Kurt asked cautiously, raising his eyebrow.

“It’ll be fun!” Santana exclaimed defensively.

Kurt sighed, knowing Santana wouldn’t give up. “I’ll ask him in a while. He’s still with Cooper and I don’t want to interrupt them.”

“Cooper?” Santana asked confusedly.

“His brother.”

“Oh…” Santana nodded.

***

Of course, Blaine agreed to the movie night and showed up at Kurt’s apartment with his bag a few hours later.

“Can’t we just go to my room and make out all night instead?” Kurt asked, making Blaine laugh. “Santana’s probably gonna embarrass the hell out of me.”

“Hm, as much as the idea of making out appeals to me,” Blaine began, taking Kurt’s hands into his own. “Embarrassing you sounds far more interesting.”

Kurt made a whining noise, pouting teasingly at his boyfriend. Blaine laughed, leaning in to press a kiss to Kurt’s lips; the two of them getting lost in the moment until Santana’s booming voice pulled them apart from each other.

“You two have ten seconds to get your butts into the living room or I’m going to saw your lips off so that you are physically incapable of kissing any longer.”

Kurt let out a laugh, dropping his head to Blaine’s shoulder.

“Come on,” Blaine laughed, helping Kurt limp into the living room as he didn’t have his crutches with him.

“Hey guys,” Dani greeted from where she was sat on a beanbag on the floor, Kurt and Blaine replying with their own heys.

Much to Kurt’s happiness, Santana didn’t embarrass him too much, and he promptly dragged Blaine into his bedroom once the movie night was over.

“I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said I wanna make out with you.” Kurt laughed, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s neck and kissing him. Blaine wrapped his own arms around Kurt’s waist and carefully walked him backwards, making sure he didn’t hurt his ankle, before gently lying him down on the bed and crawling on top of him, reattaching their lips.

“You’re such a teenager.” Blaine mumbled teasingly.

“Shut up.” Kurt said, tangling his fingers in Blaine’s hair and pulling him back down into yet another kiss.

The two boys kissed heatedly for a while until Santana burst through the door, just as Kurt wrapped one of his legs around Blaine’s waist.

“Wanky!” Santana exclaimed, causing the boys to break their kiss too quickly – resulting in their teeth smashing against each other.

“Ow,” Blaine groaned, dropping his head to Kurt’s shoulder.

“Get out of my room!” Kurt shouted, flushing red.

“Well, I was gonna see if you wanted to come and watch another movie with me and Dani but I can see that you two clearly have better things to do – like each other – so I’ll take that as a no.”

“Santana!” Kurt exclaimed, throwing a pillow in Santana’s direction.

“Okay okay, I can take a hint.” Santana said with a smirk, leaving the room.

As soon as Santana was gone Blaine began to laugh, causing Kurt to shove him until he was no longer on top of him and roll onto his side.

“Hey,” Blaine said softly, amusement suddenly gone. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Kurt said, folding his arms under his head and blocking Blaine out.

“Kurt…”

Kurt sighed. “It’s just…Santana. She seems to think it’s okay for her to just barge into my room whenever she feels like it without knocking, and then she thinks she’s hilarious for making me feel uncomfortable.”

“Have you told her that?” Blaine asked, running his fingers up and down Kurt’s arm.

“Yes. She doesn’t listen to me. She doesn’t listen to me about anything, I don’t know why this would be any different.”

Blaine sighed, lying down behind Kurt and wrapping his arms around him. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Not really,” Kurt said, leaning back into Blaine’s embrace. “Can you just hold me until I fall asleep and forget all about this?”

“That I can do.” Blaine said, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” Kurt said with a smile. “Blaine?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Blaine grinned against his boyfriends shoulder, wrapping his arms around him tighter. “I love you too.”

***

“Something smells really good,” Blaine said as he sleepily made his way into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Kurt’s waist from before. “And I’m pretty sure it’s not just you.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Kurt laughed, turning around in Blaine’s arms and wrapping his own around Blaine’s neck, pressing a kiss to his lips. “I was making pancakes but I burned them.”

Blaine laughed, playing with the hair at the nape of Kurt’s neck. “Well then, I guess we’ll have to find something else to have for breakfast.” He said, pressing a quick kiss to Kurt’s cheek before sliding away to look through the fridge.

“Come back,” Kurt whined, making grabby hands at Blaine before giving up and making his way over to the fridge and resting his chin on Blaine’s shoulder just as the twenty nine year old pulled a can of squirty cream out. “Okay, I know that your mental age is way under your actual age, but that isn’t a meal Blaine.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted it for.” Blaine said deviously, grinning at Kurt over his shoulder.

“What are you-” Kurt said, his sentence cut off when Blaine sprayed the cream onto his nose. “You…”

Blaine couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on Kurt’s face. His laughter stopped, however, when Kurt reached into the fridge and pulled out canned cheese.

“It’s on.” He said with a smirk, spraying the cheese onto Blaine’s nose and giggling until Blaine began to chase him around the kitchen.

Kurt ran and ducked down behind the kitchen counter, staying there until he realised Blaine didn’t follow him. He slowly peered over the top of the counter to see that the kitchen was emptied. His eyebrows instinctively raised and he ducked back down, crawling to one end of the counter and looking around the edge to see if Blaine was hiding there, but he wasn’t. Sighing, Kurt turned around, only to get a dollop of cream squirted onto his face.

“Blaine!” Kurt giggled, grabbing Blaine’s can and standing up, tip-toeing when Blaine stood up and tried to grab it from him. “Shame I’m taller than you isn’t it?”

Blaine grabbed Kurt around the waist, hosting him up over his shoulder and laughing at the squeal he elicited from Kurt. “Shame I’m stronger than you isn’t it?” Blaine smirked, running through the kitchen into the living room.

“Blaine!” Kurt screamed, giggling nonetheless. “Put me down!” He said, kicking his feet around.

“But this is so fun!” Blaine laughed, running around the apartment as Kurt screamed and laughed, flailing around in Blaine’s arms. “Okay okay, I’m done.” Blaine said, laughing as he lowered Kurt to the floor and took the two cans from his hands, placing them on the floor and wrapping his arms around Kurt’s waist.

“You’re ins- mmphh,” Kurt began, cut off by Blaine covering his lips with his own. “Insane.” He mumbled against Blaine’s lips, wrapping his arms around Blaine’s neck and deepening the kiss. “Crazy.” He mumbled next, tangling his fingers in Blaine’s curls. “Preposterous.” He said, giggling when Blaine pulled away and shoved him playfully.

“Preposterous? Really?” Blaine laughed.

“Mhm.” Kurt hummed, pulling Blaine back and kissing him once again.

“You talk far too much.” Blaine murmured, walking Kurt backwards and pushing him gently onto the sofa, climbing on top of him and kissing him passionately.

“Shut me up then.”

“I intend to.” Blaine smiled, continuing to kiss his boyfriend.

“You two just never stop, do you?” Santana asked sleepily as she emerged from her bedroom, her hand entwined with Dani’s, to find the two boys making out on the sofa, both of their pyjama shirts hanging open.

“Leave them alone.” Dani giggled, pushing Santana into the kitchen and leaving them alone in the living room once again.

Once Dani and Santana finished their breakfast, they made their way back into the living room to find that Kurt and Blaine weren’t even wearing their shirts anymore and Blaine had begun to kiss his way down Kurt’s chest.

“I love you both, but if you do anything that requires being naked on that sofa I will not talk to either of you ever again.” Santana said, standing by the sofa with her arms crossed over her chest.

“I guess we better go to my bedroom then.” Kurt said breathlessly, pushing at Blaine’s shoulders until he got up from the sofa, taking Kurt’s hand and leading him into his room.

***

“Well…breakfast took an interesting turn.” Kurt said, pulling his duvet over him tighter and snuggling into Blaine’s side.

“That was much better than breakfast.” Blaine laughed, pressing a kiss to the top of Kurt’s head.

Kurt turned his head so that his chin was resting on Blaine’s chest and grinned up at his boyfriend.

“As much as I enjoyed that, I’m starving.” Kurt giggled, pressing a kiss to Blaine’s chest.

“Then I guess we better go and eat.” Blaine smiled, grabbing his pyjama bottoms off the floor and pulling them on before standing up.

“It probably would’ve been smart to get our shirts before we came in here…I feel naked.”

“That’s because you are, my dear,” Blaine laughed, leaning down to kiss Kurt chastely. “Get dressed, I’ll be in the kitchen rummaging through your cupboards.”

“Okay.” Kurt laughed.

Kurt made his way into the kitchen a few minutes later in fresh pyjamas. Blaine was making…Kurt wasn’t sure what he was making, but both Santana and Dani were smirking at him

“What?” Kurt asked self-consciously, bringing a hand up to his face. “Is there something on my face or…”

“Nope.” Santana smiled.

“Why are you smiling at me?” Kurt whined, sitting down opposite his friends.

“Nothing,” Santana said. “It’s just…um…you may wanna be a little quieter next time.”

“Oh my god.” Kurt groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

“I don’t really need to hear…that while I’m trying to watch TV with my girlfriend.”

“Okay, I get it. Now can you please shut up?” Kurt whined.

“Yup,” Santana said, standing up and taking Dani’s hand. “It’s my turn to have my wicked way with my significant other now.” She joked, pulling Dani from the room.

“You’re awful!” Kurt shouted after her with a laugh.

“Food for my beautiful boyfriend.” Blaine smiled, placing a plate in front of Kurt.

“Mm yay,” Kurt grinned. “You’re the best.”

“I know.” Blaine laughed, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s forehead before sitting opposite him with his own food.

“Can we just spend the day doing nothing at all? I feel like being lazy.”

“That sounds perfect.” Blaine smiled.

***

The next day, Blaine picked Kurt up from college as they were going to the movies, but he couldn’t help but notice Kurt seemed…distant. He sat in the passenger seat with his knees drawn to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs, his head resting against the window as rain pitter-pattered against the glass.

“You okay?” Blaine asked, glancing at Kurt as they came to a traffic light.

“I’m fine.” Kurt replied, forcing a smile onto his face.

“Are you sure?” Blaine asked, frowning a little. “You seem…not okay.”

“Blaine,” Kurt sighed. “I’m fine. I promise.”

“Okay…” Blaine said uncertainly, turning his attention back to the road.

Throughout the movie, Kurt sat curled up in the same way he had in the car. He didn’t hold Blaine’s hand on the way in or the way out, whereas he would usually never let go of it. When they got back to Blaine’s apartment, the nineteen year old curled up on the sofa and buried his head in his arms, sobs escaping his body.

“Kurt,” Blaine frowned, sitting down next to Kurt and rubbing his back as he cried. “Kurt, baby. What’s wrong?”

“I’m so stupid.” Kurt cried, his voice muffled from where his mouth was smooshed against his arm.

“You’re not stupid,” Blaine countered. “Why would you even think that?”

“Everybody hates me,” Kurt sobbed, lifting his head and wiping at his eyes. “I was so stupid to think I actually had a chance at having friends.”

“What are you talking about?”

“School,” Kurt cried. “Ever since I was little I’ve been bullied and teased and I thought that coming to New York, starting college, things might actually change. People might actually see me for me and not the stupid labels I’ve been stuck with my whole life but no, of course they don’t. People still call me names and shove me in the hallway and I should be used to it but it freaking hurts,” He said, tears streaming down his face. “I don’t understand why I’m such a failure. Why does everybody hate me so much?”

“Are you crazy?” Blaine asked, sitting sideways on the sofa to face Kurt completely. “Kurt, you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. People tease you because they’re closed-minded idiots who are completely oblivious to how perfectly imperfect you are. Don’t listen to a word they say, because I swear to you – they’re all wrong. They don’t know you; they don’t know a single damn thing about you and I’m not gonna let them make you feel so bad about yourself. I’m not gonna let you talk about yourself that way because you’re nowhere near right. You’re incredible, Kurt. You’re the most…selfless, adorable, crazy and loveable person I’ve ever met in my life and I really wish you could see that.”

“Why should I believe you?” Kurt asked sadly, more tears trickling down his pale cheeks. “You’re the only person that’s ever thought about me like that…how am I supposed to know that you’re right and they’re wrong?”

“Because I love you,” Blaine smiled sadly, reaching up to wipe Kurt’s tears away with his thumb. “I love every single dorky, adorable thing about you and I would never lie to you, Kurt.”

“I hate feeling this way.” Kurt cried, curling into a little ball.

“I know baby,” Blaine said, wrapping his arms around Kurt. “Can I…do they do anything…they haven’t hit you or anything, have they?”

Kurt shook his head, sitting up and wiping his eyes. “Not since high school.”

“Good,” Blaine sighed, relieved. “Promise me that if they do so much as touch one hair on your head, you’ll tell me.”

Kurt nodded, smiling a little. “I promise.”

“Thank you,” Blaine smiled, opening his arms. “Now get your cute little butt over here.”

“You’re such a dork.” Kurt laughed, snuggling into Blaine’s arms.

“I’m your dork.”

“Touché,” Kurt grinned, burying his face in Blaine’s chest. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being there for me, I guess. Nobody’s ever really stuck up for me before.”

“Kurt,” Blaine said incredulously. “I love you. I will always be there for you and I will always stick up for you.”

“I love you so much.” Kurt said, a few more tears falling from his eyes as his voice cracked.

“I love you more.” Blaine smiled, rubbing his nose against Kurt’s.

“You said you’d never lie to me.” Kurt said, grinning mischievously.

“Ah, but I didn’t.”

“But you did, because it’s impossible for anyone to love somebody as much as I love you.”

“Well now you’re just being cheesy.” Blaine laughed as Kurt shoved him playfully.

“Hey Blaine?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you do me a favour?” Kurt asked sweetly.

“Sure…what is it?”

“Kiss me?” Kurt asked, looking insecure.

“Always.” Blaine smiled, leaning forward to capture Kurt’s lips.

***

“Who the hell is knocking on your door at freaking one in the morning?” Kurt groaned, burying his face in a pillow, wrapping it around his ears.

“You make it sound like we were actually sleeping.” Blaine laughed, getting out of bed and pulling his pyjama bottoms on, making his way through his living room to the front door.

Kurt followed behind him, pulling his pyjama bottoms up at the same time and tripping over them as he got into the living room and saw Cooper at the door, falling flat on his face. Kurt whined, letting out a little ‘ow’ but making no effort to get off the floor.

Blaine looked over his shoulder at his boyfriend and couldn’t help but laugh – Cooper was laughing too, in his defence. “Are you okay?” Blaine asked, still laughing.

“Mhm, yup,” Kurt said, awkwardly getting up and pulling his trousers up before Cooper saw him practically naked, turning around and blushing. “Completely fine.”

“Anyway,” Cooper said, clearing his throat awkward. “Uh, I’m locked out of my apartment and my roommate isn’t home – your place was the closest I could think of – so I was wondering if maybe I could crash here for the night?” He asked hopefully.

“Sure,” Blaine smiled, allowing his brother to enter his apartment. “Luckily for you, I have an extremely comfortable sofa.”

“It’s true.” Kurt agreed.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Cooper laughed. “Thank you, by the way.”

“It’s fine,” Blaine assured him. “I’m gonna go get some blankets and pillows, I’ll be back in a minute.”

And, soon enough, Blaine was making his way back into the living room – his arms filled with a mountain of pillows and blankets. He walked over to the sofa and dumped them on top, unsure of how to continue from there.

“Um…”

“My boyfriend,” Kurt began with a laugh, making his way over to the sofa and beginning to arrange the pillows and sheets. “The twenty nine year old who doesn’t know how to make up a bed. Tada!” He said proudly once he was done, opening his arms and gesturing to the now tidy sofa.

“My boyfriend,” Blaine mimicked with a smile. “The nineteen year old who thinks he’s so clever.” Blaine teased, poking his tongue out at Kurt.

“Okay,” Cooper said awkwardly. “Well, uh, thank you…I’m just gonna leave you two to your little couple…ness and try to get some sleep.”

“Okay,” Blaine smiled. “And stop thanking me!” He called over his shoulder as he and Kurt made their way back to his bedroom, hand in hand.

“Does this mean I can’t sleep naked now?” Kurt pouted as they entered Blaine’s bedroom.

“You can if you want to,” Blaine laughed, stepping closer to Kurt and wrapping his arms around his waist, letting his hands wander. “I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to it.” He said, beginning to kiss Kurt’s neck.

“Blaine,” Kurt breathed. “We’re not having sex while your brother is in your living room.”

“Thank you!” Cooper called out from the living room, eliciting laughter from both boys.

“Okay okay,” Blaine laughed. “Fine. No sex.” He pouted.

“Good boy.” Kurt smiled, ruffling Blaine’s curls.

“I’m not a dog!” Blaine said, laughing at his boyfriend.

“Mhm, if you say so.” Kurt smirked, turning around to walk to the bed.

Blaine grinned to himself, suddenly grabbing Kurt’s pyjama bottoms and yanking them down, causing him to trip and go flying onto the bed.

“Ha!”

“Blaine!” Kurt laughed, rolling over so he could see more than just the darkness of his face being buried in Blaine’s covers. “You’re mean.”

“Only to you.” Blaine smiled, climbing over Kurt.

“Obviously.” Kurt teased, rolling his eyes and leaning up to kiss his boyfriend.

“Go to sleep!” Cooper called from the living room with a laugh.

“Remind me why I let him stay here?” Blaine asked teasingly, climbing off of Kurt, taking his pyjama bottoms off and climbing in under the covers as Kurt did the same.

“Because he’s your brother and you love him,” Kurt said nonchalantly. “Now shut the hell up and hug me while I sleep…please.”

“That was just beautiful,” Blaine said, placing his hand over his heart and pretending to tear up. “I’m touched.”

“Why thank you.” Kurt said in a low voice, smirking at Blaine. “No but I was being serious about cuddling…I never joke about cuddling.”

“Noted.” Blaine smiled, wrapping his arms around Kurt as the nineteen year old rested his head on his chest.

“I love you.”

“I love you more.” Blaine grinned.

“Shut up.” Kurt laughed, reaching to the side to switch the lamp that was illuminating the room off.

***

Blaine woke up in the middle of the night to find Kurt thrashing around in bed, a thin layer of sweat covering his body as little sobs escaped him. Blaine was unsure of what was happening for a few seconds before he realised Kurt was having a nightmare…and it seemed to be an intense one. Unsure of what to do, Blaine pulled Kurt against his chest, carding his fingers through his hair and shushing him – even though he couldn’t hear him – in hope of calming him down. It worked for a few moments, but Kurt soon began thrashing around again as his whimpers grew louder. Kurt awoke with a scream, shooting up and crying loudly.

“Hey, shh,” Blaine said softly, sitting up and wrapping his arms around Kurt. The nineteen year old turned into his embrace and leaned against his chest as Blaine rocked him back and forth. “You’re okay.” Blaine whispered, peppering kisses into his hair.

“What the – oh…you’re okay,” Cooper said breathlessly as he burst into Blaine’s bedroom. “I thought somebody was getting murdered in here.”

“He had a nightmare,” Blaine said, carding his fingers through Kurt’s hair and cradling him against his chest. Kurt began crying harder at the mention of his nightmare, wrapping his arms around Blaine’s chest. “Shh baby, you’re okay. I’ve got you. I’m right here.” Blaine whispered soothingly, rubbing Kurt’s arm softly.

“Bl-Blaine.” Kurt hiccupped, crying into Blaine’s shoulder.

“Can you get him some water please?” Blaine asked Cooper, who nodded and made his way into the kitchen. He returned a few moments later with a glass of water and handed it to Blaine, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Here, baby, drink this.” Blaine said, rubbing Kurt’s back until he lifted his head a little.

With much help from Blaine, Kurt drank a little of the water and leant his head against Blaine’s chest as he tried to slow his breathing down.

“Are you okay?” Blaine asked once Kurt’s breathing returned to normal and his sobs died down.

“I’m ti-tired.” Kurt hiccupped, clinging to Blaine tightly.

“I’m gonna go,” Cooper said, rubbing Blaine’s shoulder comfortingly on the way out.

“Give me a minute,” Blaine said, pressing a kiss to Kurt’s forehead before getting off the bed.

“No,” Kurt cried, his breathing getting faster again.

“Shh, I’m right here,” Blaine said softly, running his fingers through Kurt’s hair. “I’m not going anywhere, okay?”

Once Kurt calmed down again, Blaine made his way over to his drawers and grabbed two T-shirt’s and two pairs of underwear before making his way back to the bed. He helped Kurt into one pair before putting his own pair on and climbing back under the covers, pulling Kurt against his chest once again. He whispered comforting words into the darkness of his room for almost an hour before Kurt drifted back to sleep; his hand tightly gripping Blaine’s t-shirt.

***

Kurt was still sound asleep when Blaine woke up the next morning, so he silently climbed out of bed and went into the kitchen to make some breakfast. Cooper was already up, sitting at the table and drinking a mug of coffee.

“Hey,” Cooper smiled.

“Hey.” Blaine yawned, walking over to the kitchen counter and making his own mug of coffee.

“How’s Kurt?” Cooper asked.

“He’s okay, I think. He was asleep when I woke up so I left him…it’s not like he got a lot of sleep last night.”

“How are you?”

“Tired,” Blaine laughed. “But I don’t care as long as he’s okay.”

“You really love him, don’t you?”

“I really do,” Blaine smiled, leaning against the counter. “He’s just…he’s incredible.”

“I should listen in on your conversations more often,” Kurt smiled as he entered the kitchen. “I like the sound of them.”

“Hey,” Blaine smiled, taking both of Kurt’s hands into his own and pulling him closer. “How do you feel?”

“Groggy,” Kurt replied, laughing a little. “I’m okay though. Promise.”

“Good,” Blaine smiled, pressing a small kiss to Kurt’s lips.

“I should probably get going,” Cooper smiled, standing up from his seat. “Thank you again for letting me stay.”

“If you say thank you one more time I’m going to hurt you,” Blaine laughed. “I honestly don’t mind. You can stay whenever you need to.”

“Tha – never mind.” Cooper laughed.

***

After Cooper left, Kurt and Blaine cuddled up on the sofa for the rest of the day and watched movies, content to just be with each other.


End file.
